


Recalibration

by DisrepairHouse (KittenFuzz)



Series: Disrepair House [3]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Comedy, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Family Feels, Gay, Gen, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Robot Parent, Robots, Slice of Life, Sonic 2006, Sonic Adventure, Sonic World Adventure | Sonic Unleashed, Team as Family, Tragedy/Comedy, parenting, rogue robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2019-09-14 03:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 154,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16904955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittenFuzz/pseuds/DisrepairHouse
Summary: New Member, New House, New Neighbors.Time’s reset and a number of strange occurrences are happening around Soleanna lately.  Monsters of the past are reappearing, energies are out of whack, and Robotnik’s managed to recruit a new, unfamiliar robot…But more importantly, this move is offering a slew of difficulties RK never could have imagined.  As if Itara’s inability to not wreak havoc at her school wasn’t enough, the new neighbor from down the street won’t leave him alone and Metal Sonic won’t stop destroying the house!  Added to Kipper’s penchant for terror, he just doesn’t have the time nor energy to deal with the monsters attacking Solaris’ shrine or Robotnik’s new lacky.Now if he could just get his shopping done in peace for once…





	1. Recalibration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so begins the second arc of the Disrepair House story.
> 
> So I decided to actually write this one for NaNoWriMo this year (and won it) because I needed a break from my bigger projects. I also decided to write in an entirely new genre than normal and boy was it a challenge. While the first half, and mid-arc story, of this series were more tragedy, I wanted to make this arc more light-hearted and even a bit comedic. Of course, there's still plenty going on - in the background - but for the most part, this one is gonna be a bit... lighter in themes. Just some fun domestic shit with robots.
> 
> That said, I feel I should note, you don't actually have to read the previous stories to understand what's going on in this one. Hopefully. What's happened up to this point is explained in the story so if you want to just jump in here, go for it. That said, past stories will be there for the reading.
> 
>  **Finally** , just for good measure, this story also has an askblog over on tumblr, so if you like art with your stories, head on over here: [Disrepair House](http://disrepairhouse.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Enjoy!

A vast, arid desert stretched for miles, a harsh wind whipping the sand across the endless dunes, creating great whirlwinds reaching for the great, blue sky.  Pillars of an ancient civilization stuck up sporadically throughout the dunes, a gust of wind occasionally revealing the remains of a platform before covering it once more.  No sign of life or movement appeared under the scorching sun.  Suddenly, in the midst of the sand, the air crackled and snapped, subtly at first but fluctuated and grew violent within a matter of seconds, ending in an explosive _boom_ that shocked through miles of the desert wasteland.

Sand and ancient debris whirled through the static air as a pulsing, swirling portal appeared.  With a powerful wave of energy, a mass of damaged, sparking red metal was thrown from the center of the portal, landing several feet away before coming to a sliding halt, half buried in the hot sand.  The air crackled once more before the portal faded out of existence, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared and leaving only heaps of displaced sand and the immobile pile of robotics behind.

Not far off, the hum of a hovercraft filled the now-silent air as its shadow ran across the sandy hills below.  The craft sped through the desert before reaching the deposited robotic body, stopping above it just long enough for its driver to inspect the creation, using a pair of robotic attachments to grab it.  Lifting the half-buried body out of the sand and hoisting it in the air enough to not drag, the hovercraft returned the way it came with its new discovery.  A quiet laugh escaped the man inside as he returned to one of his many bases.

Finally… something to replace his own lost creations.  It would take some repair, but nothing he couldn’t handle, he was sure.  The real challenge would be keeping the new addition under his control; he was growing tired of robots going rogue on him.

 

* * *

 

“If I had let the fight continue, it would have turned in their favor.  You couldn’t have just expected me to stand by, could you?  He asked me to help with a specific job and I did, and no, he did not specifically ask me to fight Shadow, he just asked me to intervene in the fight.  It was my decision how to do it and—Kipper, are you even listening?!”

“Huh, what was that?  I stopped listening ten minutes ago.”

Burgundy and blue quills prickled as pale cheeks puffed in irritation.  A small hedgehog girl crossed her arms, narrowing furious green and purple eyes at the doll sitting on the back of the rust red couch.  She slammed her hands down on her crossed legs while a toothy, terrifying grin spread across the little fox doll’s face.  “K-Kipper!  Don’t as-ask me about the… past if you aren’t gonna l-listen!”  Her face reddened as she barely stammered through her command, causing the grin on the doll to widen further.  As soon as she realized he was only looking to tease her, as he often was since he was given the ability to _talk_ —something Itara regretted more everyday—she huffed indignantly and turned away.

There wasn’t far to go, unfortunately, as they were still in the base she’d originally set up in several timelines ago, so she couldn’t do much to escape the infuriating doll’s teasing.  It was a small cabin, set far into the forest and away from any town.  Itara had found it abandoned initially, but it worked for what they needed, a simple base of operations.  They had refurnished considerably to create a more comfortable living space, as well.  One of the two smaller rooms was turned into a bedroom for her, the other she’d turned into a computer room, and the larger, main area was sectioned off into a living room and kitchen by a half wall.

The living room was furnished with an old TV and couch, where she spent most of her time, either journaling or watching a show or two when she managed to catch them.  She kept her small, black journal on a side table beside the couch so it was easy to grab and write in.  On the other side was an even older, more worn out chair and a spiral rug sat in the center of it all.  The rug’s material was matted and coarse, thin from years of use, and a bit scratchy to lie on, but Itara often lay there, in front of the TV, to watch her shows.

The kitchen was outfitted with the most basic of necessities: counters, an oven, a fridge, and a few cabinets they’d repaired, themselves.  Against the far wall, just beyond the half-wall’s reach, was an old, scratched up dining set with four vaguely matching chairs.  A recycled set of blue curtains hung over the two windows in the larger area, the ones over the dining room window cut shorter than the living room curtains so they didn’t run over the table.  It wasn’t much, and everything in it was salvaged from something or another, be it street side giveaways or thrift stores, but it was enough for the current residents.

Yelling out in frustration, the young hedgehog girl reached over, shoving the little yellow doll off the back of the couch where his two tails had been propping him up.  Even the talking doll, that was now filling the small cottage with a haunting laughter, looked as though he’d been picked up from a gutter.  His patchy orange fur was matted down from years of questionable stains, his body badly sewn together with puffs of stuffing sticking out between the threads.  What used to be white fur on his ears, padded hands, and belly were grey and spotted with specks of brown.  His black button eyes were scratched and dulled, and the red gem that hung from a wire on his head fared no better, having a decent chunk taken out of one side.  It was a creepy imitation of a well-known two-tailed fox, but years of abuse and an innately unsettling design with an off-putting aura had left it in an antique shop window for decades.  The cleanest part of it was the shiny white ribbon wrapped around its neck.

“Keep it up and I’ll tear the rest of your stuffing out, Kipper.”

The young hedgehog had stormed over to the dining room where the other two residents were set up at the table, one of them hunched over in pieces in one of the chairs, while the other stood over them, working on a laptop.  The taller of the two, a towering, thickly-built echidna covered in thin red fur glared over towards the laughing Tails doll, his single, glowing green eye backing his threat and bringing the possessed doll’s amusement to an end.  Satisfied, he turned back to the laptop on the table to continue his work; though thanks to the long, metallic claws jutting out from one hand, the process was slow, even though he was plugged into the computer, itself.  A long, red tail flicked back and forth as he waited for loading screens.

The other, far quieter bot sat propped in one of the chairs, inactive and badly damaged. The blue and white bot had a leaner design than its red companion, though with the sharp, jutting metallic chassis it was difficult to tell what its original appearance used to be.  While the red robot showed signs of damage, between a shattered eye hidden under a black eyepatch, the exposed ‘skin’ on one of its dreads, a long scratch going down its muzzle, and a missing hand, wrapped and replaced with a hook, the blue one was even worse.  One arm was missing entirely, only a heavily gashed ball joint and exposed electrical wires remaining; the other was badly cracked and dented.  Both legs were splintered and torn, half its torso was nothing but jutting edges and exposed wiring, the top of its head was shattered and charred black, and a long, webbing crack ran across its eyeglass.

At one point in time, both robots had been notoriously deadly creations of Robotnik, designed and built solely to battle and destroy their mobian counterparts.  Yet one had been abandoned for years, left to decay in the rubble of a fallen base—until a time-travelling child rescued and repaired him—and the other was reduced to scrap metal after a time-shattering battle against an angry God.  Nonetheless, the less damaged of the two was determined to fix his companion, however he could.

“Itara, do me a favor and get the extra USB cord from the other room?”

The small hedgehog muttered a quiet ‘sure’, turning her attention to the room connected to the dining room, shuffling around in it for a moment before returning with a long, black cord, USB ports on either side of it.  Handing it to the red robot, she stood back and watched him curiously.  “Have you thought of something new to try?”

“Just testing another theory.  He’s still going to need a lot of repair before he’s fully functional again,” he paused, adding a small, “ _if_ he’s ever fully functional again,” before continuing in the same monotone nonchalance, “but if we can _at least_ get him back online, even if only to a minor degree, it could make the process considerably faster.  He would know how his circuity works better than even I would, especially since no one can go back and look now.”  Itara shuffled uncomfortably at the suggestion, but it went unseen by the other.  “But he’s… even more damaged than I was initially.”

“I wish I could just _check_ ,” Itara muttered, casting a hateful glare towards the black journal in the living room.  Turning back, she noted, “at the very least, with as much damage as he’s sustained, if we do get him back online, we likely won’t have to worry about his loyalty chip… or his communications system, for that matter.  We’ll have to make sure those don’t turn back on at any point during the repair, but it’s easier to keep something offline than to turn it off sometimes.”

“So what happens when he wakes back up, remembers everything that happened, hates you all for it, and kills everyone?”

Both robot and hedgehog turned a wary eye towards the amused doll.  It wasn’t so much that they hadn’t considered the possibility, between the two of them they’d run through just about every possible outcome and came up with several contingency plans to deal with them, but that was the most dangerous option out of all of them.  Unlikely as it was.  Even if he remembered most of what had happened before, and even if he did still hold a grudge about certain circumstances, he would be too damaged to do anything about it.  For as terrifying and talented of a killer as their out of commission guest was… he was hardly more than a pile of bolts nowadays.

Sighing in annoyance, Itara turned away from the doll first, crossing her arms as she explained, “RK shouldn’t have any trouble with him, if he tries to attack.  He’s built stronger and Sparky’s super broken.”

There was silence in the room afterwards as they considered the answer, RK turning back to continue his work while Itara moved to sit down at one of the empty chairs beside him.  Kipper shrugged and dropped against the back of the couch, returning to his ‘sleeping’ state.  He could at least talk and move on his own at certain points, but he couldn’t remain active indefinitely.  He returned to his doll-like state whenever he no longer felt like interacting with the others, and more often than not, both RK and Itara welcomed the moments of silence.

As usual, they took advantage of the current silence and continued their work on their broken project.  RK decided to hook up to the other robot, directly, leaving Itara to run the programs necessary for his new tests through her laptop.  Once everything was set up and ready to run, RK shut off unnecessary background programs and let Itara take over the process, using the larger, functioning robot as an interpreter and display for the possible errors running on the other robot once they booted power into him.  It took some time before Itara was able to reconfigure the mess of code into something readable but once she did, she relayed the information.

After a quick discussion, and a lengthy argument about _how_ to do it, they decided to shut down everything except the ability to turn lighting and optics on.  They would start at the smallest, most basic structure of the design and if no errors appeared, move on until they found the core problem.  Then the problem would be _fixing_ whatever came up, but if they could at least figure out what, the how would come.  Once again, using his own processors as an intermediate, RK began routing power to the broken Metal Sonic while Itara kept a sharp eye on her laptop screen, watching for problems.

Processors began to whir and familiar crackles of the long-time shorted circuitry sparked up, getting a cautious gaze from the young hedgehog, but when she saw RK making no attempts to stop the process, she returned to the screen to watch for errors.  Whirs and the puff of internal fans filled the silence of the open rooms, the occasional warning showing on the laptop screen, that Itara looked into before continuing the process.  Unaware she was holding her breath, Itara let it out sharply when she saw one of the bright red eyes light and begin to glow, dimming and brightening slowly along with the notification that appeared on the laptop.

The robot made no movements; even the glowing red eye remained stationary, prompting Itara to look into the program to see if it was getting any optical feedback or if the light behind the screen had been the only component to turn on.  She relayed the information to RK once again while pulling up the visual programs of both robots.  RK’s was normal, showing a dimmed view of the living room from the one functional eye.  Metal Sonic’s however, only showed static.  But it was more than they had gotten before.  It had only shown black before, if they were getting static now, it meant _something_ was working.

Itara quickly took a seat back in her chair to start looking into it, digging deeper into the code to try and locate the exact problem of the feed, relaying the information directly to RK’s communication lines via the computer since he’d shut his auditory programs down to conserve power.  This was the most they’d gotten out of the broken robot since the reset and they were both equally eager to push on.  Even when Kipper activated again and started with his usual sass, likely awakened by Itara’s cry of excitement at having finally made progress, she aptly ignored him in favor of working on the robot.  While she was still wary about activating him completely, considering his nature and the previous timelines, it was the biggest source of distraction to keep her from thinking about things she preferred not to.  She would happily forget problems she _couldn’t_ solve for the ones she _could_.

As she worked, however, more whirring and sparking started up, causing her to pause and study the still immobile robot.  The single lit eye had stopped blinking and remained consistently glowing, and the opposite side even gave an occasional flash, but nothing moved.  Checking the various programs open on her laptop again, making sure nothing was overloading or trying to turn on more than it could handle, she returned to work when she felt satisfied she could press on.  She knew of Metal Sonic’s previous circuitry problem, knowing he had a short in his system that he’d learned to manipulate, and was likely to return, if not get much worse, so she expected sparking when they reactivated him.  That was why she nicknamed him Sparky, after all.

Reassuring herself that was all it was, she poured through the codes again, looking for anything that could be relevant to his reboot.  During her search, however, a string of errors finally popped up that brought her progress to a short stop.  Optical errors, software errors, reboot errors, overheating errors, the list went on.  Sighing, she sat back again, looking over the list before leaning forward again to let RK know… but the second her fingers touched her laptop, a sharp zap ran up them, causing her to quickly withdraw.  Leaning back again, she eyed the laptop, concerned, reaching out to try again, knowing she’d need to let RK know to disconnect before anything more happened… when a sharp electrical current zapped through all three electronics.

Darting up and away from the frying laptop with a screech, knocking the chair back and nearly tripping over it on her way, Itara scrambled away from the table and the robots, watching in shock and horror as both Metal Sonic and RK jolted spastically from the assault.  Her laptop managed to throw a stream of errors and warnings on the screen before making a horrifying crackling sound, flashing several times, before finally blacking out, the smell of burnt plastic and metals filling the room.  Metal Sonic and RK continued sparking for several minutes before they gave a final jolt and dropped forward, leaving a wake of fried electronics with a smell of burnt faux fur.  Just as Itara was getting up to start looking over the damage, however, the entire cabin gave off a soft hum as the power shut down, leaving only the light of the setting sun to fill the dark, quiet rooms.

Itara shut her eyes, her ears pinning against her head as she heard Kipper moving behind her, before crying out in anguish and distraught.  Kipper chuckled behind her, the light red glow of his gem casting wide shadows around the room when she opened her eyes again.  “Oh no, would you look at that,” the doll laughed, “Momma bear’s shorted.  It’s gettin’ dark.  The powerless little hedgie is all defenseless.  _What’s going to happen_?”

A quick chill ran down Itara’s spine at the suggestion, but she quickly shook her head, turning around to grab the floating doll out of the air and wrap him tightly in her arms, “nothing’s going to happen, Kipper.  It’s not like I’m averse to the darkness or anything, I just have to get the power back online… and then… _very_ carefully disconnect everything from RK to let him reboot.”

“But I wonder what _caused_ that in the first place,” Kipper continued, disgruntled at being grabbed but continuing his taunting, nonetheless, “is it possible your killer robot is more active than you originally thought?”

Itara remained silent, keeping the doll tightly wrapped in her arms as she made her way out of the cabin and around the side to check the circuit breaker.  She was at least glad the sun was still up, low as it was, but they were so surrounded by forest that even the comforting light of the sun came off more as a harsh, burning glow, casting long, reaching shadows.  It was late in the year, on the cusp of winter, so the biting cold was snaking its way through the trees while the setting sun turned the changing leaves to fire.  There was only a small dirt path leading down the hill from their cabin, which didn’t reach a solid road for at least a mile, and even then they were several miles outside of town.  They were, in many aspects, entirely isolated and alone.

Shaking her head again, Itara flipped the switch on the breaker, one ear perking to listen for the snap of the electricity turning back on before she headed back inside.  Casting a longing glance towards the sun, she sent it a silent message on her way back inside.  As soon as she stepped foot back inside, however, as she was preparing to return to the robots… the electricity snapped back out, causing her ears to flatten once again.

“You forgot to-”

“Shut up, Kipper,” she hissed, tightening her hold on the doll to emphasize her point, walking over to the robots and disconnecting them both from the main power.  With that taken care of, she returned to the breaker, flipped it on _again_ , and finally returned to the robots to start unplugging everything.  Knowing she wouldn’t be able to work while holding the doll, she released him and watched him float up above the robots while she went about unplugging them.  Sighing in defeat when she saw the state of her laptop, she set it on the kitchen counter.  That had been expensive.  It would take _forever_ to save up to get another like it.  Stupid Sparky, he owed her a new laptop.

With the sun finally setting over the horizon, the woods outside the cabin fell to darkness and silence while Itara sat quietly working to repair the robots.  She couldn’t even check to see how far that had set them back, or even what caused it in the first place.  Kipper’s comment about Sparky maybe being more aware than they initially thought was caught in her brain and had her concerned.  If that was, in fact, a defensive maneuver on his part, whether on purpose or not, it could complicate his repair even more.  If they couldn’t hook up to him without fearing for their electronics, or in RK’s case, his own computers, she wasn’t sure how they were going to repair him at all.  Well, first things first, she had to get him back online in the first place.  Luckily he was more resilient than her laptop and only seemed to be offline, much like the breaker, he just needed his switch flipped back on.  Once she had him disconnected and made sure turning him on wouldn’t damage him further, so far as she could tell without her laptop, she initiated a manual startup.

 

“I’ll try to get you a new laptop soon.”

“Mhm.”

“For now, I suppose you’ll have to do your homework at the school library, though.”

Itara looked up from her journal in horror at this, meeting the unamused stare of the robot who had been trying for several minutes to get her attention.  “I didn’t think of that!  RK, I can’t!  We have to get a new laptop _now_!”

He shook his head, shrugging, “sorry, Itara, but as you said, it’s going to take a little time to get enough for a high end laptop like that.  You’ll be fine.  Just let them know your home computer crashed, they should let you use a school computer for whatever you need one for.”

“That’s not the problem!  I don’t want to be in that Hellscape any longer than I have to!”

RK stared at her, an eyebrow rising, “I still don’t understand why you hate it so much considering everything else you’ve lived through: Multiple timelines, a destroyed future, and _everything_ that happened with Mephiles, and it’s _school_ that’s the Hellscape?”

“Yes!”  Desperation was so blatant on her face, RK almost smirked in amusement, but shook his head, instead, turning back towards the dining room.  “Don’t ignore my suffering!”

“You’re the daughter of a God.  You’re fine.  Come eat your dinner.”

Itara whined loudly and dramatically, but eventually sighed in annoyance and returned to her journal, finishing her thought before setting it down on the stand again.  With as much vigor as a slug willingly walking to a salt pile, the young hedgehog made her way to the half of the table that wasn’t consumed by tools and cables and sat with a heavy ‘thump’ in her seat.  A small bowl of mac and cheese and a glass of milk sat, waiting for her, but the young girl seemed as interested in it as she had been in Kipper’s earlier taunting.

“Don’t play with it, eat it,” RK warned, watching her poke at the small, orange noodles with her fork, resting her head in her hand and an elbow on the table.  “You can pout all you’d like, there’s nothing we can do about your laptop for now, you’re just going to have to be patient.”

“Another reason to hate my lack of powers,” the girl muttered angrily, glaring at her dinner now, but slowly started eating with another warning glance from the much taller robot.  An echo of snickers from across the room gained the doll responsible the same glare, though the snickering didn’t stop as Itara’s pouting did.

“In any case,” RK sighed, looking over the table at the remainder of their available tools, “we’re going to need another trip into town soon.”  They might need to put Metal Sonic’s repair on hold again until they can replace the laptop, it would be difficult to do anything without at least one computer and he couldn’t suffice on his own.  Especially with the new string of errors he couldn’t get rid of.  After a long, thoughtful silence, he spoke up again, “perhaps we should look into moving to a new base.”

Itara looked up at the suggestion, tilting her head to the side in confusion.  She’d chosen this cabin for a reason in the original timeline, it was far enough that they could work in considerable quiet, but it was also one of the few places RK could remain intact for as long as she needed him to be.  Of course, with the reset, with Solaris’ fusion, she doubted the second reason would be relevant anymore, but they’d still need to be cautious about the first.  “Where else would we even go?”

“We can only do extremely minimal repairs and upgrades in the situation we’re in, with as few computers as we have at our disposal.  One laptop gets fried and we lose all sources of operations, it’s problematic.”  Itara’s eyes narrowed as she started picking up on his point, but let him continue, “in such a small base, even if we had the proper amount of computers, at a high enough level to work on Metal Sonic and myself, they could never fit and the menial power such a small dwelling can even get could never power them all.  In addition, getting our hands on such high end electronics is near impossible, and stealing them would create unwanted attention we can’t really handle at the moment.”

“RK… what are you suggesting, exactly?”

“If anyone would have the equipment necessary to do the repairs we need to… it’d be the original creator.  It’s no secret Dr. Robotnik has a number of abandoned bases around the area, if we could pinpoint of them, clear them out, get them back online without tipping him off about it, it would offer everything we don’t have at the moment.  It’s a dangerous gamble, but if we’re careful about it, it could work.”  He turned towards her, crossing his arms and adding, “plus, we might be able to find something closer to your school, so you have less of a walk.  Or at least something closer to the trains.  There are a number of underground bases he used for surveillance purposes that should be empty now; they’d have normal buildings above them to avoid suspicion.  If we can find one of those, it could work.”

Itara grumbled in annoyance at the mention of her school again, but went into careful thought about the actual potential of looking into one of Robotnik’s abandoned bases.  She’d looked into a number of the doctor’s inner workings during her runs through earlier times, looking for the most beneficial times to steal his robots, she’d run across a number of his various bases, including the underground ones RK mentioned.  The problem, more or less, came from taking them without tipping anyone else off.  If they powered up a previously abandoned base, it could alert him, and they would be in far more trouble than they were now.  Not to mention, it could also tip of _others._   Robotnik wasn’t their only concern.  He never had been.

“What are the chances of success?”

“Depending on the base, it varies anywhere between 2% and 78% chance of success.”

“78%?  That’s a surprisingly high percentage,” her brows furrowed in confusion.  She wasn’t expecting anything beyond fifty.

“As I said, it depends on the base.  There are some that are nearly ruined where the largest complication would just be getting power back to it, it’s old enough that it would be long since off Robotnik’s radar and so far away from populations that it wouldn’t be likely to catch attention from the general populace.  However, they are… rather far out of the way, even more than we are now.  They’re isolated, but also decrepit.”

Itara hummed in thought, pushing her now empty bowl aside to cross her arms on the table, leaning forward to think about it.  It had potential.  It would be a search, and they’d have to be careful about how they went about it, but maybe they could do it.  Just using an old Robotnik base did offer them a lot of solutions they didn’t have at the moment.  She didn’t much care about the location relative to her school, she didn’t even want to go in the first place, but if they had bigger computers, it would be easier to fix Metal Sonic.  And the sooner they got him fixed, the better.

Hopefully.

“I’ll run the numbers a bit more later, for now, are you finished?”  Itara looked up from her thoughts, having completely forgotten about dinner, but nodded, prompting him to nod towards the sink, “then put your dishes away and get ready for bed.  We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow, either way.”  The small hedgehog huffed, but did as she was told, dropped her dishes into the sink before grumbling off to her bedroom.  RK watched her until she closed her bedroom door before turning back towards the other robot, running the numbers while studying the broken chassis.  He had to wonder if the shock earlier was intentional or not.  To a degree he hoped it had been intentional, it meant Metal Sonic was in a better shape than they initially thought and they might be able to convince him not to do it again so they could repair him.  However, at the same time, it meant he was inherently hostile, which was to be expected, all things considered.  But if he couldn’t be reasoned with, RK had to be ready to forcibly restrain him and as much as he loved a fight, he didn’t want to damage Metal Sonic any further than he already had.

His repair was going slow enough as it was.

Shaking his head, he moved to sit down and run through the possibilities of taking over a base again until Itara came back out, dressed for bed and looking for Kipper.  Once she had the inactive doll, he told her goodnight and sent her off to bed, waiting until the light from her bedroom switched off before going into a partial sleep mode.  He wanted to save as much energy for his scans and calculations as possible without wasting any on unnecessary functions.  It was irritating that he still had to preserve energy like that, but there wasn’t much he could do about it until he could be better repaired.  The best bet, for both him and Metal Sonic, was to find a base.

Besides, he wouldn’t mind finding something a bit bigger to give Itara more space to move around.  Maybe even something a bit nicer so she didn’t have to live in a literal shack in the middle of the forest.  They’d fixed it up as much as they could manage on their own, from new coverings for the walls, installing furniture and proper kitchen appliances, and even wiring it for power.  But there was only so much they could do in their situation.  If he could, he wanted to give her a room as close to the one she had in that mansion as possible.  He knew he couldn’t find something quite that large without drawing attention to themselves, but he wanted to see if he could get close.

He knew there had to be something out there, he would just have to find it.


	2. Moving Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Disrepair House moves to a new neighborhood and meet the new neighbors.

RK stared at the large wooden box, crossing his arms as he looked between the back of the rented truck, the thin layer of snow over the driveway, and the open front door.  The box was too large to fit in the front door, by far, but the contents within were far too… well, _precarious_ to bring out of the box to move inside on their own.  Between the snow and the line of neighbors that could be, and likely were, watching from their own homes, he didn’t see pulling what was inside out as a great idea.  There was, technically, a garage door attached to the house that should have been large enough to fit the box through, except that the garage wasn’t real and the door was only for show.  The entrance to the lab was behind that wall and if he tried to open it, by force or otherwise, it would reveal secrets the quiet neighborhood didn’t need to know.

They were at least at the far side of a fairly isolated cul-de-sac.  They didn’t have any direct next-door-neighbors, per se, there was at least a house’s length between them and the others on one side and a good portion of forest on the other side.  There was another side-street of houses behind them but there was a line of thick trees between the streets, and their new house, specifically, had a high fence around most of the ‘yard’.  In reality, the length of fencing around the house was used to measure the size of the lab underneath, with a few feet of gap between the ground and walls for… some very Robotnik-esque reasons, RK had found out.  While the plot of land fit in almost seamlessly with the little suburban neighborhood it was built in, inside it was as noticeably Robotnik as they all were.  He was honestly a bit impressed the doctor even managed to disguise it as well as he did, considering how rarely the _good, overly well-known Dr. Robotnik_ applied actual tactical subterfuge.  It wasn’t uncommon for his bases to be the most obvious, massive, machine-gun-equipped, giant-robot defended stretches of land in an area.  Even if he put them out in the middle of forests, there was no attempt at subtlety whatsoever.

However, luckily for them, at least in this instance, even Dr. Robotnik was capable of undercover surveillance setups and, just as luckily, it was left entirely abandoned and unguarded.  RK had a wild guess the doctor had completely forgotten about it, judging by the rodent infestation he’d found in the kitchen, as well as how easy it was to get into.  Even the lab underneath was shockingly easy to access with some minor alterations of his own readings.  He was still technically a Robotnik robot, even if he had been rogue for some time now, and the fact that he was once a high-level robot made the job even easier.  He only needed to verify that communications to the main base were cut off before trying to access the lab so it wouldn’t tip Robotnik off that it was _being_ accessed at all.  If he’d forgotten about the base, RK intended to keep it that way.

Once the base was open and the security systems were inspected and shut off, the move, itself, had been surprisingly straightforward.  They hadn’t had much to pack from the old base, especially with the frying of their only computer.  Most of the boxes were from Itara’s room, having decided to get rid of most the shoddy furniture in favor of buying new furniture upon moving.  Though RK hadn’t realized just how little decor the new base would have, either.  He should have realized, if anyone had been staying in the house at all before Robotnik abandoned it, they were likely robotic in nature, they wouldn’t need much beyond what you could see through a quick glance in a window.  They couldn’t leave it totally barren, that would be suspicious, but almost all of the two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and kitchen were empty.  Then again, with the rampant infestation, between small rodents and insects, they likely would have replaced it all, anyway.  The house and base were equally filthy.

Then there was the weather.  It had taken him some time to locate and narrow down potential bases without tipping the doctor or any of his systems off and as he was searching, the chilly autumn had turned to a biting winter.  The temperature, itself, didn’t bother him so much as the _wet snow_ and ice did.  Ice slowed him down considerably, going back and forth between the bases, and then the wetness offered its own unique, infuriating challenges.  Between soaking packages, making the fur stick to his chassis, making it difficult to move what little furniture there was out, and even giving Itara a cold—which he wasn’t even aware was a possibility—he was already over the winter.  Unfortunately, it had only just started and, judging from past records in the area, it was only due to get worse.

All of that, in addition to visibility, was making the last part of their move to the new house-base… irritating.  He’d moved most the rest of what they had already, and had plans to take Itara shopping later for missing basics, and all that was left in the back of the rented moving truck was the large box they’d had no choice but to pack Metal Sonic into.  Despite his destruction of their electricity and Itara’s laptop, the blue robot was still nonfunctional and carrying him out in the open would have been asking for trouble.  Unlike him, who had been out of commission for several years before going rogue, Metal Sonic was still relatively well-known.  He was an upgraded, roboticized version of a famous ‘hero’ hedgehog, and had been used, albeit not to maximum potential, even RK knew, out in the open a number of times.  Minor adjustments kept RK from being recognizable, but it would be far more difficult for someone like Metal Sonic.

Especially with how many robotic parts were visible at the moment and all the damage he’d sustained.  There was no feasible way to fully disguise him without drawing unwanted attention.

But he couldn’t leave that door open much longer, either.  He only had the truck for so long, for one, but it was also supposed to start snowing again this evening.  The longer he stood in the back of the truck debating, the more cold air was going to get into the house and the more suspicious he might look for not just going through the ‘garage’.  What about the back door?  If he could get into the backyard, beyond the fence, he could take Metal Sonic out at the back sliding door, and bring him inside without anyone noticing.  Then he could disassemble the box and be done with it.

Nodding to himself, he jumped down from the truck with a light _crunch_ from the thin layer of snow, and turned around to pull the box forward.  It was the only wooden container they’d brought.  Everything else was either in cardboard or small plastic totes, but he’d asked the old man at the antique shop if he had anything larger and the old fox cleared out a wooden crate he had some lamps packed away in for them.  It came up nearly to the old fox’s shoulder when he was hunched over, coming up a little over RK’s waist, standing up, and was luckily just wide and tall enough to fit his broken, inactive fellow robot.  He imagined, however, that if Metal Sonic ever knew about how he had to be transported, he would be… less than pleased.  But it was all he could do at the moment.  RK just wouldn’t tell him.

Though, he suspected the mischievous two-tailed doll just _might_.

Shaking his head, he pulled the crate over and lifted it up on his shoulder to head around the back.  He had to shift its balance slightly, figuring out where the majority of Metal’s weight was and ensure his claws wouldn’t dig into the wood too much.  Realizing he might not be able to open the fence gate with his hook, he called for Itara to come out and help him while turning away from the truck.

He nearly lost his balance, and the box, however, when he came almost immediately face-to-face with a widely grinning human woman, wrapped up in thick scarves, jackets, and even mittens, standing just beside the truck’s wall, planted firmly between him and the fence gate.

“Well, hello there, new neighbor!” the woman exclaimed, though RK didn’t miss the quick, sliding eye before they rested on his face again, “We wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood!”  RK looked past her to see another human woman of about the same size and slender build as the woman in front, and a man beside her that was a couple inches taller, but hardly any thicker.  Humans were considerably taller than mobians, since most mobians capped out at an average of three feet, and even RK and Metal Sonic still came up short compared to most of them.  But between a considerable amount of upgrades and the lift from his boots, RK only came up a few inches shorter than the human women, rather than several feet.

He towered over other mobians and even had a good couple inches on Metal Sonic, but seeing as he didn’t often involve himself with humans, he wasn’t much used to being the shorter one.  At least, though, he knew he was significantly stronger than all of them, should they ever start anything with him.  Though he’d prefer to keep the need for a fight to a minimum.  They were trying to stay under several radars.

Eyeing the woman in front again, he studied the glassware covered in plastic wrap in her hands before nodding, “Thank you.  I appreciate the gesture.  I hope our moving hasn’t caused you much disruption.  We’re just about done.”  He didn’t know how close he wanted to be to the humans of the neighborhood, but he knew they at least needed to keep up formalities.

“Oh, no disruption at all, don’t you worry,” the woman smiled.  Perhaps he was mistaken, spending so much time with so many blatant, straight-forward mobians, but RK thought he was picking up something insincere in her smile.  “It’s just been a long while since we’ve seen someone in this house and thought we’d introduce ourselves.  My name is Lynda, I live three houses down.  This here is Aiko and Jeri; they live at the end of the street there.”

RK had to resist the urge to inform them that he already knew all their names, having looked into the neighborhood to determine whether it was safe enough for them to be there.  Instead he simply nodded and debated how to answer, wondering if it would be okay to use his abbreviated name.  He hadn’t used his full designated name since leaving Robotnik’s control, but he wondered if they would question what the letters would stand for.  Even the shortened ‘Robo-Knux’ would likely be a bit obvious.  “You can call me RK; it’s a pleasure to meet you.”  When he noticed Jeri’s eyes falling on the large box balanced on his arm, he started towards the fence again, explaining, “I hope we see more of each other, but I must finish here.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t appear Lynda was done talking yet, “of course, that looks so heavy.  You must really be quite strong to lift that on your own, perhaps we can help?  I bet you have a lot to unpack and, not to brag, but I’ve been told I’ve got quite the eye for interior decorating.  Oh!  And I brought you a casserole, to welcome you in, as well.  We should get this in a fridge!”

It hadn’t occurred to RK that being able to lift something so ‘heavy’ as the crate could be considered abnormal.  The crate, itself, was approximately fifty pounds on its own, and then there were at least a hundred more in robotic parts sitting inside.  If not more.  Metal Sonic’s weight always seemed to vary considerably and RK couldn’t tell off-hand how much he was carrying at the moment.  In addition, he didn’t even have a fridge yet.  It was one of the appliances he and Itara needed to pick out today, so he wasn’t sure what to do with a casserole.

“I can handle the box,” he finally stated, but looked towards the door to call for Itara again, as she hadn’t come out yet.

“Itara, is that your little girl’s name?” Lynda questioned, still making no movements to get out of his way.  His systems were starting to shift to ‘hostile’ and he was having a hard time dismissing them.

“Well, she’s not necessarily…” he began, wondering how best to explain it.  Luckily, the little time traveler finally made her slow way out, Kipper wrapped tightly in her arms, as she appeared in the door.  “There you are, I need to finish unpacking,” he started, motioning towards the box still sitting on his shoulder, “can you get the fence gate open so I can take this around back… and… come meet the… neighbors.”

Itara’s brows furrowed, looking between the box, RK, the fence, and eventually the small group of humans seeming to hover around the giant red robot.  “R-right,” she stammered, moving towards the fence, but frowned at the realization that she couldn’t possibly reach the locking mechanism.  It was on the other side and the fence, itself, was twice her height.  “I gotta go around b-back.”  Before she could get far, however, Lynda jumped at the opportunity to butt in further and moved towards the tiny hedgehog.

“Here, why don’t you take this inside and put it away for us and I’ll help daddy out,” she grinned, holding the glassware out, half-crouching in front of the small girl who’s eyebrow lifted suspiciously at the word ‘daddy’.  After a quick hesitation, she switched the orange doll to her arm and took the casserole, nodding, and turning around to go back inside.  She didn’t like the weird lady already.  She just wanted to go back to bed.

With no small show about it, Lynda moved over to the face gate, RK doing his best to keep his concerns off his face, as he followed her over to it.  He may have to wait to actually bring Metal Sonic inside, if he couldn’t get rid of this Lynda woman so easily.  The other two humans seemed to exchange glances before bidding him a final ‘welcome’ and taking their leave, but Lynda was still determined to follow him even once he reached the back porch.  Unfortunately, the box still wasn’t going to fit through that door, either.  He would have to take Metal Sonic out to get him inside.  But he didn’t want to leave him in the box, outside, for long, either.  It was already starting to snow again.

Setting the crate down with a heavy _thud_ , likely giving away the true weight, judging by Lynda’s shocked and curious expression, RK turned back towards her and, in an attempt to get rid of her, explained, “thank you for the assistance and the casserole.  I’ll try to repay the favor sometime.”

His attempt, however, got him no more than a dismissive smile, “I’ll have to call you whenever I need something heavy moved.  Are all you mobians that strong?”  She gave a quick glance towards the hook on his hand before continuing, “Mrs. Mobian must really like the rugged types.”

RK could only stare, trying to search the look on her face for a meaning.  At first he was concerned she had caught on he was no normal mobian.  As strange, and tall, as he was, no one had ever questioned it before.  He had a feeling the old fox from the antique shop knew, but he had never bothered to ask.  But the comment about ‘Mrs. Mobian’ threw him off entirely.  It took him a minute to realize she was questioning a non-existent partner, as he’d never looked into the relationships of humans, and left him debating even longer on how to answer.  The only ‘partner’ he’d ever had was Metal Sonic, and she had referred to Itara as his ‘daughter’ earlier, so surely she didn’t mean her.  Of course, Itara wasn’t his child, either, but that was a conversation for later, if ever.

Eventually, the only answer he could decide on was, “there is no Mrs. Mobian.  It’s just Itara and I.”  For now.

“Is that _so_?”

There was a tone in Lynda’s voice that RK didn’t entirely recognize.  He thought Itara was a strange, unreadable child at first, but he was starting to wonder if it was just all organics.  Maybe the programs necessary to read expressions was one of the ones damaged beyond repair.  Perhaps he could try to reinstall that, as well, now that they had the lab.  Being unable to read organic facial expressions and tones could potentially be a dangerous limitation later on.  Especially in the situation they were in.

“You’ll have to tell me more sometime,” she continued, looking in towards the glass sliding door, blatantly studying the dim, barren inside until Itara caught sight of them and made her way over, pulling the sliding door open with an eyebrow rose.

“It was-wasn’t locked,” she explained, looking between the two.

“I know,” RK responded, looking back at Lynda again, “in any case, we still have a lot of work to do.  As you’ve probably seen, we’re still missing quite a bit of necessary appliances and I need to get that truck back sooner rather than later.  Thank you again for the assistance, Lynda, and it was nice meeting you; we’ll have to chat more later.”

Finally, at last, she seemed to take the hint and smiled almost bitterly at the two of them, “of course.  Moving is always rather time consuming.  Well, you know where I am, let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”

“I’ll remember the offer.”

“You should come meet my little boy sometime, too, Itara.  I think you’d get along well,” she added, before nodding and turning to leave.  RK and Itara both waited, watching her walk around the other side and back down the street, before Itara let out a light huff.

“I d-doubt that,” she muttered under her breath, turning to RK again, “so why did... why the back?”  She motioned towards the crate while RK shook his head, checking once more to confirm no one else was around anymore, before turning to the crate to start opening it.

“It wouldn’t fit through the front door, but it won’t fit through the back, either, unfortunately.  I need to take _him_ out to get him inside but I didn’t want to do that in full view of everyone so I thought the backyard was the best way to go about it.  I wasn’t expecting neighbors.”  As he explained, he snapped the tightly shut lid off, revealing the carefully packed robot and his various parts they had recovered.  Gathering as much of the other robot as he could, RK lifted him out of the box and walked past Itara into the house.

There was only one light at the moment, a tall corner lamp that they’d brought from the other base, with the same curtains from the other living room draped around the front window to the street.  While RK looked for a place to set the broken robot in the meantime, Itara moved to close the curtains.  They didn’t have a couch or dining table or chairs yet, so RK opted for leaning Metal Sonic against a far wall in the hallway towards the lab entrance before going back to retrieve the separate parts sitting at the bottom of the crate, closing the lid once it was emptied.  Luckily, only the living room and part of the dining room was visible from the front window, anyway, but much more was visible from the glass backdoor.  The kitchen, dining room, living room, and part of the hallway were visible from the back and they hadn’t bought a screen for that door yet.

Near the hallway was a door leading to the ‘garage’ entrance to the lab, then two bedrooms on the left, and a bathroom and small closet on the right.  The bedroom towards the back of the hall was the master and had its own half-bathroom.  They’d brought Itara’s bed from the old base and, while RK originally planned to set it up in the master bedroom, she had decided she wanted it in the small bedroom and they could refurnish the larger room as an upstairs computer room or something of the like.

“Alright, that’s everything we have for now,” RK began, walking back out to the living room, closing the sliding door and heading for the front, “I wasn’t planning on going this late, but we are missing some necessary appliances.  Did you still want to come with me for that?  I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to be out this late in the snow.”

Itara huffed, rewarded with the cough she’d been holding in since the neighbors appeared for the action.  “I c-can’t even… believe I _get_ sick,” she growled, grabbing the coat that had been carelessly tossed in the corner of the living room, “but I’m going.”

“Well, I suppose you are part of the Sun God, perhaps winter is just your off time—leave Kipper here.”

“What?  Why?”

“I don’t want him causing trouble while we’re trying to shop.  He’s not been very inconspicuous since we started moving,” he eyed the doll still wrapped up in her arms as its jewel glowed and a sarcastic grin spread across its face.

“Aw, whaddya mean?  I wasn’t gonna do nothin’,” Kipper sneered, “I’m innocent.”

“You’re innocent and I’m organic.  You’re staying.  And don’t cause any trouble while we’re gone, either.  There are people around now, you need to be cautious.  Having a doll that looks like Tails is one thing, having a floating, talking, _smart mouthed_ doll of Tails would gain attention we don’t need.”  The doll practically hissed at the mention of his look-alike, the red gem on its forehead glowing before it calmed again and shrugged.

“Whatever.  I’ll just hang out with Sparks, then.  Whaddya wanna bet he can hear me?”

“Unlikely.  But leave him be, just in case.  I won’t be the one to stop him should he try to mutilate you when he’s active again.”

Kipper floated up out of Itara’s arms and over towards the dark hallway, grinning, “That broken pile of nuts and bolts would have to catch me, first.  But go have fun, do your _shopping_.  Don’t forget to buy your tiny child _lots_ of thick coats for the winter season, Momma Bear.”

RK rolled an eye, turning to Itara, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

Once she had her jacket on and zipped up, he lifted her up on his back.  "We should go by the antique shop first, since it closes the earliest, see what we can find there, and then we can finish the rest of our shopping afterwards."

"We're going to the antique shop?"

"I thought we could, yes."

"Then we should bring Kipper!"

RK remained silent, not wanting to bring the troublesome doll at all, but relented with a cringe and called out for the doll, "but no funny business.  I don't want you scaring the old man."  The grinning doll floated over, getting comfortable in the nook between RK and Itara's shoulder, but said nothing.  He would make no promises.  "I mean it, Kipper.  None of your nonsense."  Getting everything settled again, he fixed his jacket and headed out the door, locking it and heading down the street.

"But Momma Bear, I'm made of nonsense," the doll mocked, getting an unseen roll of the eye from the robot.  "Eh, I suppose I can play somewhat nice with the old guy, though."  Itara just smiled and leaned against RK, snuggling down while he got the truck closed up and took her around to the passenger side, getting her settled in and buckled.  He moved around to the other side and took off before long.


	3. Interruptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RK, Itara, and Kipper head over to the antique shop Kipper came from to get some shopping done. On their way out, they have their first run-in with a new, unfamiliar robot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The new character makes his first appearance.

“Okay, we just need to pick up a few necessary appliances for now and we can do a more in-depth shopping trip later.  When it isn’t so late.  As it is, our options for shopping centers are narrowed considerably by what stores are still open after five.  It seems, at least so far as I can tell from the local shops, a fair number of shops close around four or five,” RK explained, helping Itara out of the large truck after they dropped it off.  “It’s a considerable walk to the majority of the shops from here so it’s likely best for me to carry you until we arrive.”

Itara looked up towards the sky once she was back on the ground, attempting to study the falling snow, only for a sneeze that nearly sent her toppling back into the grey slush to interrupt her thoughts.  Hissing in annoyance, she nodded to RK, following him into the small building to hand the truck’s keys back before they headed off.  “The sooner we get this done, the better.  What’s on the list to get tonight?”

“Just going off what we had in the previous base, I think a refrigerator, freezer, oven, and couch should be our priorities for the night.  From what I’ve seen of most websites regarding larger appliances and furniture, there are options to get ‘next day deliveries’, so we should be able to get them in and installed by tomorrow at some point.  Then we should probably do some grocery shopping once that’s done.  We can pick up some non-perishable foods on our way back home tonight but we should obviously leave anything that can spoil for after we have a fridge.”  Itara nodded, eying the truck as they passed by it again on their way out of the rental center.

Once outside the gates, RK pulled Itara up onto his back, mapped out the quickest way to the antique shop, and took off at a light run.  He wasn't the fastest, not even amongst the robots when he had Metal Sonic to contend against, but he was still considerably faster than most and especially so for Itara.  He still ranked after Sonic, Metal Sonic, and Shadow, but he was faster than his mobian namesake.  Either way, a run to the antique shop, which was technically further than it was from their old base, was still faster than going by car.

There was, however, a lot more icy wind to contend with.

By the time RK started coming to a slow, Itara's ears were tightly pierced against the back of her head and her nose was twitching from the cold.  The sudden warmth of the old shop was so comforting she let out an audible sigh of relief and nearly jumped when a voice spoke up.  "Cold out there, isn't it?"

"It would seem so," RK responded, letting the little girl down off his back and looking over her to make sure the cold hadn't been too much, "maybe we should get you a thicker coat."

"I-I'm f-fine," Itara stammered, shivering and reaching up to rub her nose while an old, hunched over fox made his way across the room.  He crouched down to meet her eyes and gave her a quick pat on the head, smiling warmly.

"I've got the heater set up near the counter, why don't you go warm up?"  She opened her mouth to argue, but reconsidered and nodded, instead.  Hugging Kipper to her, who had gone into full doll mode, she made her way across the room while the fox stood up to talk with RK.  "How's everything going?  You two doing alright?"  There was an extra note of concern behind his voice that RK almost missed, glancing towards Itara before nodding.

"I think she's doing better, yes.  She doesn't talk about it much, and still insists it doesn't bother her, but she was able to go back to school finally.  They're on winter break at the moment but they go back in a couple days."  He followed the old fox, who was nodding along, back towards the counter, glancing through the shop as they walked, "we actually just moved to a new neighborhood, I thought it best to start shopping for furniture and... figured we could start here."

"Oh, is that so?  Must be difficult moving during the winter.  I'm glad to see you again, though.  I'd been wondering how things had been going since your last visit."  He glanced around the shop a bit as he moved back behind the counter to return to his stool, "well, just let me know if you find anything you like and I can get it set up to ship for you."  RK nodded and looked over Itara, who was curled up in front of the heater, and then started walking through the floor to see what might fit in their new house.

The shop was decently sized, nothing massive but enough to fit a considerable amount of furniture in addition to the shelves of ancient toys, figures, and decorations.  While RK looked around, Ned turned his attention back to the little girl huddled by the heater, catching sight of the familiar doll wrapped up in her arms.  "How's Kipper doing, there?"

She looked over her shoulder towards him, looking down at the doll, and thinking about her response.  Should she explain what Kipper actually was?  Before she could decide either way, however, Kipper made the decision for her and piped up, "pretty great, all things considered.  Could use more _souls_ , though."

Ned nearly toppled over from his chair when the doll turned and stared at him, the gem on its head glowing lightly and a wide grin spreading across its plush face.  RK sighed from across the room and Itara reached up to bap the doll on the head, turning back to the shocked fox and apologizing.  "Kipper is kind of a brat, but I'm glad to have him around... most the time," she explained, standing up and straightening her clothes out to walk over to the counter, "I guess I should explain why he can talk, though."  She waited for a response, but getting none, continued, "He's... actually kind of a... ghost?  Possessing a doll.  He used to go by Tails Doll but he's Kipper now.  He didn't have any power before, which is why he stayed still for so long, but... he has some now."

"And now that he can talk, I wish he would go back to being powerless," RK grumbled.

The room remained silent as the three let the old fox process the information, the shocked expression taking several minutes before it finally left his face, being replaced by confusion and eventually settling on deep consideration.  Itara frowned slightly, a bit worried that they might have scared him too much and he wouldn't want to talk to them anymore, and apologized again, but much to both hers and RK's relief, he waved her apologies away.

"No, no, it's okay," Ned began, speaking slowly, still trying to process the information.  He studied the doll closely, rubbing his chin, and speaking again, "well, I can't say I'm not a bit surprised, but... well, I guess that explains why he took so long to sell.  I knew there was something about that doll but I never imagined that's what it was.  Though I am a bit concerned as to where he got that power."  He eyed the doll with suspicion while Itara looked away in thought.  That, she decided, was actually too much to explain to the old shopkeeper.  A talking doll was one thing, multiple timelines and the destruction of humanity and her Sun God father was something else entirely.

"We just... found a source of easy power for him," she stammered, frowning and continuing to avert her gaze.  Ned studied the doll a few minutes longer, but shook his head and resituated himself back on his chair.

"Well, I guess he found the right family to join, then.  I'm glad he's got a place."

Itara looked up at him, confused, exchanging glances with Kipper.  It was a strange thought, that they could be considered a family, she wasn't sure if that's what they were.  But she didn't want to argue the point so she only nodded and moved back towards the heater.  She didn't like excessive heat, but she wasn't overly fond of the freezing cold, either.  Right up against the heater was exactly the temperature she enjoyed most.  It wasn't the same warmth as her dad, but it was close enough for a small, metal contraption.

She huddled there in silence for several minutes, slowly nodding off but jolting right back up when she felt her head dip. Ned watched her with amusement, making sure she didn’t bump into the heater, itself, while Kipper debated whether or not to scare her awake again.

“Itara, why don’t you come help me pick out a couch?”

RK walked back over to her, watching her eyes droop before she jolted back up to look up at him.  She had to blink a couple times and shake her head to understand what he’d even asked.  Once she did, he continued, “There are a couple over there I think will fit the house well enough so I want your input on which one we should pick.”  She looked up from the heater, resisting the urge to whine about having to move away from it, but stood up and walked over.  “Go ahead and pick the one you want.  I have no judge for what’s considered ‘comfortable’ or not so you’re going to have to decide on what we get.”

Now that he was thinking about it, what was Lynda saying about interior design, as well?  Studying the different colors and styles and even fabrics of the couches available, he wondered if they should be trying to balance appearances or not.  Did it matter?  Would it be suspicious if they didn’t at least consider a theme?  Maybe he would look into it.  The convenience of having the internet available at any given moment right in his head.

Watching Itara taking off towards the show floor, he switched into a windowed mode, keeping his optical sensors active but opening a secondary window to look into the concepts of ‘interior design’ and what exactly it called for.  Apparently there was a considerable amount of information available about it so he simply started with the first article, scanned through, downloaded some images, and continued on to the next.  It seemed to be a rather complex situation, regarding colors, styles, eras, materials, personal preferences, the list went on.  But as RK was considering how important it even was, his optical sensor informed him of an approaching body and he switched back into visual mode to face the old fox, who had joined him once again.

“Looks like she found a comfy one,” he grinned, nodding his head towards the couches.  RK followed his sight and found Itara fast asleep on a light blue love seat, curled up into a tiny ball against the cushions.  Shaking his head, walked over to gather the little girl up, trying not to wake her.  “Must have been a long day of moving, hm?”

Shifting her to one arm, he walked back over to Ned and nodded, “she’s… got a cold, as well, so I believe it’s tired her out more than expected.”  He would have to find the stove and fridge on his own, but he doubted he would have time to run Itara back home and return again, so he would just have to carry her.  He would have preferred to have her on his back so his arms were free, should he need them, but he could manage.

Ned nodded, “that time of year.  Just make sure she stays plenty bundled up and drinks a lot of water.”  He walked over to grab the tab off the couch so he would know which one they wanted, and then followed the two back to the counter to get it all rung up.  “You take care of her on your own, don’t you?”

“Uh… yeah, for the most part.  Kipper is usually just there to cause trouble.”

“It’s what I do best,” the doll grinned, moving up from the little girl’s grip to RK’s shoulder, getting a side-eyed glance from the shop owner.  “I only help when it’s fun for me.”  RK shook his head, looking around and deciding to add a couple smaller decorations to the couch, not wanting the house to look quite so barren.  Ned then offered to have what they’d picked out shipped over for them and gave a couple recommendations to find what else they might need for cheaper.

"Alright, we should probably finish up and head home, then," RK explained, shifting Itara onto his back without waking her, motioning for Kipper to keep her secure.  Ned nodded, hammering out the final details so what they chose would be delivered to the right place.  "Thanks for the help again."

"Oh, no problem, no problem at all," the old fox grinned, "like I said before, you two come on by here whenever you want, alright?  I'm happy to see you and I'm glad to see the little one is recovering well enough from the... incident."

RK nodded, glancing back at the sleeping girl, "and thanks again for getting those delivered for us."

"No worries, _that_ just comes with running a shop."

Once everything was taken care of and Kipper had moved back between Itara and RK, he bade the old fox 'goodbye' and headed out of the shop.  Luckily, with Ned’s suggestions, the rest of the shopping could be taken care of in one stop.  It wouldn't take long and then he could get Itara home and in bed.

Walking back down the street, he gazed up towards the blackened sky, noting the continuous drift of snow coming down and checked the temperature to see if Itara would be alright until they got back home.  She at least had a thick jacket and scarf, but he figured he should likely hurry, nonetheless.  The next stop was a five minute run at his full speed, but would the wind speed bother Itara?  He would save time by running, but the cold air would likely worsen her cold.  The natural wind was cold enough, as it was.  Nodding to himself, he started off at a brisk walk.

Before he could get far, however, a sudden commotion from further down the street stopped him in his tracks and put him on high alert.  The first things he heard were the screams, though he hardly had enough time to wonder about the cause before an earth-shattering explosion and the loud screech of oversized robotics echoed across the previously quiet night sky.  In the dark of the night, the orange glow of the sparking fire could be seen from a considerable distance and, while most the population around them went running, screaming, from the towering scrapheap rolling through the street, RK only stared in brief annoyance.  Of course Robotnik would be attacking _here_ and _now_ , of all times.  It seemed the rest of the shopping would have to wait, after all.

As he turned to leave, and take another route home to avoid any collateral damage that would likely come from the attack, he caught sight of another tall, red robot standing several feet away, surveying the larger robot.  It wasn’t one RK recognized, in fact, the entirety of its design was foreign to him.  Even with as many upgrades as he and Metal Sonic had gone through, they were still noticeably robotic and, specifically mobian in design.  As far as he knew, he and Metal were Robotnik’s most advanced creations… and the doctor had never roboticized a human before.  Yet, the general outline, and especially the face, of the robot were exceptionally human.  Its mechanical parts were bright red and white, with some kind of softer, black covering over the exposed limbs.  Long, yellow hair fell back in a ponytail under what appeared to be a red and white helmet and sharp, blue eyes seemed to be carefully and closely studying everything around it.

RK didn’t recognize him at all.  Yet, surely only Robotnik was capable of something so distinctive.

But, more importantly, why was he there?  Normally Robotnik liked to be more directly involved with his attacks.  If he wasn’t in the machine, itself, he wasn’t far behind or above it.  So far as RK could see, the doctor was nowhere to be seen, or more importantly, heard.  It was only the large, attacking bot, and the oddly human looking one, on either side of the street.  He would have to go past one or the other to leave and he had a short panic that maybe that was the intent.  But surely, if Robotnik had found him again, he would be there in person to gloat or ostracize.  In addition, the humanoid robot didn’t even seem to see him.  It was looking at the attacking bot.  Studying it with narrowed eyes.

It wasn’t until a long, glowing blue sword appeared in the robot’s hand that RK considered he might, somehow, not be related to Robotnik.  The larger bot was unmistakably his, even without the usual giant logo of his face; he wouldn’t send two different robots to fight in the middle of a shopping center.  There were training arenas for that.

“RK?”

Looking away from the others, RK looked down to see a half-asleep Itara staring up at him in confusion.  Glancing towards the fight that was taking place, he looked back at her and explained, “don’t worry about it, go back to sleep.  We’re on our way home.”

She stared at him warily for only a moment, but her dropping eyelids gave way to light snores again before long.  Unfortunately, the sleep didn’t last long as the crackling of metallic and further explosions from the larger bot jolted the hedgehog right back awake.  “W-what’s going on?!”

RK had no time to answer, however, as he had to dart away from the main street to avoid the line of sight of a blue streak zipping right by them.  Motioning towards Itara to hang on and be quiet, he ducked around a far awning, watching cautiously as the blue streak stopped just in front of the larger, rampaging machine that was swatting around at its previous opponent.

“Good timing, I was just getting bored, Egghead!  …Hey, who are you?”

“RK, w-we need to leave… immediately,” Itara hissed quietly behind him, keeping a tight hold around his neck as her legs wrapped around his torso.

“Aw, but it’s just getting _good_ ,” Kipper grinned, watching the fight with wide, crazed eyes.  Both RK and Itara ignored him.

“Yeah, I know.  I’m just making sure the _others_ aren’t near before we take off,” RK explained, scanning the area while keeping out of range of the battle down the street.  Gravel, metal chunks, sparks and… Sonic’s usual smarmy remarks were flying but when RK finally deemed it safe to move, he started around the edges of the square towards a far street.  It was the direction Sonic had come from, but it was the opposite direction of the fight that still lead to a path back home.

“What did I miss?” Itara questioned once they were further away, the battle becoming noise in the background.

“Well, firstly, you fell asleep on one of the couches while we were shopping, but while I was on the way to the next destination, the larger bot attacked.  It’s an older model of Robotnik’s, so far as I can tell, mostly designed for defense so I’m not sure why he would send it out to attack like that.  However, there was another robot that seemed to be surveying the attack.  I don’t know who or what they are, it wasn’t a design I recognized.  It started attacking the defense bot just before Sonic arrived.”

“A new robot?  That’s… troublesome,” Itara frowned, looking out at the snow again, shivering lightly and snuggling down further into her jacket, as much as she could from RK’s back.  “What did it look like?”

“I’ll give you more details when we get home, for now I think it’s important we just get home.  I’m going to run the rest of the way, will you be okay back there?”

“I’ll be fine.”  RK nodded, getting another quick look around, before taking off in a quick sprint, going into a full run once they got past the limits of the city.

* * *

 

“RK!  Have you seen Kipper?!”

RK narrowed an eye towards the stairs as Itara’s steps echoed down to him, putting the tool in his hand down to turn fully towards her once she reached him, putting his hands on his hips, instead, “no, you can’t find him?”

“No,” she frowned, taking a quick glance around the lab before frowning up at him again, “I haven’t seen him since we got back last night.”

Letting out an audible sigh, the tall red robot reached up to rub his temple, “that little nuisance better not be causing trouble.  Let me finish up here really quick and I’ll help you look, alright?  The couch should be here soon, anyway.”

Itara nodded, stepping back to take a longer look around the expansive, metallic underground lab they’d managed to finally clear out.  It wasn’t the largest lab in Robotnik’s arsenal, even Itara knew that, but it was the full length of both the house upstairs, as well as the yard around it.  RK had mentioned something about a few inches of empty space between the lab walls and the cement basement walls, though, so it was several inches short, but it hardly made a difference.  It was clearly set up only for basic functions for what Robotnik usually had, but it was plenty for their needs.  Most of it had been cleared out long ago, but the main computer, four charging stations, and a defense system remained behind for their use.  Just enough to make the repairs they needed, Itara figured.  Plus a little extra.

With as much space as there was, and how little of it was actually being used, she figured they could start building up a proper, fully-functional base over time.  Since they certainly had far more of that than she was used to.  The remnants of Metal Sonic were set up in one of the charging stations closest to the computer and RK had already hooked him up to start on repairs again.  He’d been working on getting full functionality out of the computer, itself, when she came down and had returned to finishing that while she waited.

Leaning back on her heels to watch him work, she looked up towards the monitor, which was several times larger than her, wondering why lab monitors were always so big.  It reminded her of the lab room she often slept in after she met her father, its computer monitor consisted of several large screens connected to a long, curved console.  It had been the only working bit of technology she had seen in that future.  Her father explained that, because that specific lab was the source of Solaris’ split, it had been kept mostly out of harm’s way during Iblis’ rage.  She thought it a bit ironic, sparing the source of your hatred when you destroyed everything else, but she hadn’t questioned it.  She never questioned anything her dad told her.

While she was examining the room, a small flicker of an image appeared on the large screen in front of her, though disappeared before she could discern what it was.  Tilting her head curiously to the side, she edged closer to the screen, being careful to stay out of RK’s way, but wanting to test to see if it was even on.  She thought it had been off.  Leaning over the keyboard to try and reach the power button, she ran her fingers carefully over the side of the tall, thin screen, looking for any sign of a button.  She didn’t even know if she could reach it, the monitor was so tall.  Before long, however, her fingers brushed over a bump and, leaning up on her toes, she pressed it in, hoping it was the power button.

With a quick flash of deep red and a cut to black, a giant terrifying, fang-filled face filled the screen, followed by a harsh, loud static and a low rumbling.  Swirling, deep black eyes stared out with a crazed look while long, thin, orange arms lifted to reveal massive, red-stained claws reaching out as if to escape the screen it appeared on.

Itara jolted back with a screech, the commotion catching RK’s attention, looking to Itara first before looking up at the monitor.  A sharp glare fell into irritation as the doll on screen burst into a fit of laughter, its eyes and fangs returning to normal size while it put its hands back down again.

“Kipper, where have you been?” the unamused robot questioned, going back to his work while Itara huffed in annoyance, pulling herself back to her feet.

“Oh, you know, around,” the doll grinned, looking around the screen before it flickered off again.  A sharp crackle of static filled the room before the doll materialized from the screen, floating just above the desk, laughing, “You should have seen the look on your faces-”

“Kipper, th-th-that w-wasn’t funny!” Itara snapped, reaching over to grab the doll, wrapping him up in her arms again, glaring angrily down at him.  “Where have you been?”

“Sh-sh-sh-sure it was,” the doll mocked, laughing again, getting a hateful glare from the little girl holding him and a side-eyed glance from the robot half under the table.  “I told you, I was just around.  Thought I’d get a good look at our new neighborhood… and neighbors.”  A toothy grin spread across his face again, Itara sighing and shaking her head at him as she turned back towards the stairs.

“Well, I hope you got a good look around… and didn’t cause too much trouble.  RK, we’ll be upstairs,” Itara called, heading back up to the main house once she got a nod from RK.  Someone needed to be upstairs to wait for the deliveries, after all, and the longer he had to repair and upgrade the computer, the better.

Though it was Lynda who showed up again before the fridge or couch, and Itara had no idea how to deal with her.  It took her a moment to convince Kipper to go back into doll mode, but once she did, she was glad she managed.

“Hello there, little one,” the human woman smiled once Itara answered the door, “how goes the move?”  She glanced past the door into the still barren living room, making Itara glad they’d already moved Metal Sonic downstairs.  “Is your daddy free?”

Itara still wasn’t sure how much she wanted to explain this to the people in the neighborhood.  It bothered her, yet again, that she couldn’t check the future to find out.  On the one hand, it was none of this lady’s business, Itara had the distinct feeling she was the kind of person who would take an inch and run a mile.  But at the same time, even if RK was mobian and not a robot, they weren’t even the same species and she had a feeling Lynda was going to ask about that eventually, so maybe it was best to get some minor explanation out of the way now.

“The move is… progressing,” she started, looking around before settling her eyes on Kipper, “but RK isn’t really… my dad.”

“Oh?”

There.  That tone.  Itara did not like that tone.  It sounded nosy and annoying.  But she resisted the urge to say as much as she continued, “my dad is… _away_ , RK is taking care of me in the meantime.”

“Then what is he to you?”

Itara blinked.  She’d been running a number of possible answers to that question in her head long before she started the explanation, knowing it would be the most obvious course of conversation.  But there was something about having it said out loud.  In those exact words.  It took her a minute to process them.  “He’s my… uncle.”  She had explained it differently once before, to the family she only got to know briefly, she had told them that RK rescued her from Robotnik.  But for some reason, that didn’t feel like the right explanation now.  Perhaps it was because ‘uncle’ wouldn’t have been gotten far before, and using Robotnik explained her disappearance, which she no longer needed.  Somehow, for some reason, this neighborhood felt… removed from Robotnik and his shenanigans.  Like bringing him up here would shatter some kind of well-contained illusion.

So she went with uncle, instead.

Looking up to study Lynda’s expression, wondering if she was suspicious, she noted a look of amusement on her face, instead.  It was an odd reaction, but Itara had little time to think it over, as a large moving van pulled into the small driveway just then.

“Speaking of moving,” she started, “you’ll have to e-excuse us now, it seems we’ve got a bit more work to do.”

“Oh, of course,” the woman agreed, slowly, before giving Itara a quick nod, “well, let your uncle know I dropped by, then, and I’ll let you get what you need done.  Come see me any time, alright?”  Itara nodded and watched the woman walk away, waving to the movers as she passed them, before looking back when she heard RK’s steps come up behind her.  “Lynda dropped by again.”

“I heard.”

He made no further comment about it, however, nor did Itara, and instead he went out to help the movers get the couch moved in.  Itara did her best to stay out of their way, since she could offer nothing in the way of help outside of instructing them where she thought it should go.  Between the two adults and one robot, the furniture was moved in and the movers were on their way.

“Alright,” RK began, walking out from the kitchen into the living room, “I’m going to see if I can just order the rest online and have it delivered, as well, since I’m sure they’re still repairing the shopping center after last night’s attack.”  After a moment of silence, he added, “you go back to school tomorrow, don’t you?”

Itara visibly cringed, having hoped he had forgotten in all the commotion and business of moving.  “Yes… I suppose I do,” she muttered, begrudgingly, glaring towards a wall and muttering under her breath, “not that I want to…”

RK rolled his eye and headed towards the lab entrance again, “then make sure you get to sleep early enough tonight, I’ll be downstairs working on the computer.  Since it’s a new route and you’ve never ridden a train on your own before, I’ll go with you tomorrow, to make sure you don’t get lost.  Luckily, from our new location, there’s a train that takes you within walking distance of the school and a station just on the other side of the neighborhood.”

Itara groaned again, this time far louder, just to declare her disinterest as dramatically as possible, though it went largely ignored by the robotic echidna as he disappeared down into the lab.  Huffing, she snuggled down into the new couch again, glaring out at the large window leading out to the street.  What a pain.  Why did she even have to go to school?  She didn’t want to go.  Everyone looked at her strangely enough from the get-go, but it had only gotten worse after the fire.  She had avoided going back for several weeks after that, but eventually RK thought it best she return and as soon as she did, _everyone_ looked at her strangely.  She didn’t want their pity.  That wasn’t even her real family, anyway.  She didn’t care what happened to a couple of mortals.  She had just stayed with them to see if they were useful.  She didn’t have any kind of connection to them.

Shaking her head violently to throw the thoughts from them, she looked up in annoyance at the empty space between the couch and the wall and muttered, “We need a TV.  I’m missing my shows.”


	4. The Long Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Itara's off to school and the day is free, RK decides to get the shopping he couldn't done. Should be a simple in-and-out, he already knows what he needs and where to get it...... or so he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shenanigans are in full swing now.

"RK!  Have you seen my shoes?!"

"They're in the box in your room labeled 'footwear', Itara," RK called back, briefly glancing up towards the stairs before shaking his head and returning to the computer screen.  He'd managed to get everything ordered and installed, and the computer functional again.  Now he just needed to work on repairing Metal Sonic.  He needed to take Itara to school before long, but he had some time before they needed to leave that he intended to get some work done in.  The larger setup, and the computer designed specifically to work with Robotnik robots was making the process far easier than it ever could have been on an everyday laptop.  He was already making headway.

Unfortunately, that headway would have to come to a halt for the time being as the stuttering little hedgehog made her way down the stairs, huffing and crossing her arms, "I can't find them!"

Letting out a fume of air, he stood up and met the little girl halfway to the bottom step, "alright, alright, I'm coming.  Really, though, they shouldn't be that difficult to find, we don't exactly have a lot to begin with."

"Yeah but I started unpacking and now I can't remember if they're still in the box or I put them away."

"Did you look?"

"Yes!"

The side of RK's mouth pulled into a line as he led the way back upstairs walking into the mess of a room across the hall from the lab entrance.  Somehow, despite them not having much, Itara managed to turn her bedroom into a disaster zone while getting ready for school.  He cast an incredulous glance, getting little more than a pout and a view of her back in response, but rolled his eye and went about searching through the remnants of the whirlwind for her shoes.  It took less time than walking up the stairs to find them.  In the box.  Sitting in the closet.  Casting another sideways glance, he handed her the shoes and continued out of the room to double-check she had a lunch and her jacket ready before they left.

Once the child and her various requirements were properly wrangled into jacket, shoes, and backpack, RK checking once more to check she had everything she needed and she hadn't crumpled her homework into a mess at the bottom of her backpack, he locked up and pulled her up onto his back to take her down to the train station.  The snow had reached up to two feet overnight and, though the streets and driveways were plowed down to barely an inch of slush, he didn't much trust Itara to not get lost or soaked.  He had seen her try to walk down the driveway once already and had been grateful for the warm, running water they had now afterwards.

"So, as I said last night, I'll take you all the way to school today and tomorrow if you need it, but it'd be best if you can start going on your own before too long.  I need to start putting in more time at work and I won't know what hours it'll end up being.  There's a station just down this street and that'll take you into the city.  As long as you get off on the right stop, the school will be another short walk from that station.  It seems these trains run a good distance around the area so you should have no problem getting around even without me, as long as you don't get lost."

Itara gave little more than a disgruntled mutter, calling him to look back at her, "You should write down where you need to go so you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I will," Itara grumbled, though only leaned her head heavily against his shoulder, staring out in utter disinterest.  She didn't want to go back.

On their way down to the first station, a number of other kids from around the neighborhood joined their direction one after another, though only a couple were being chaperoned by their parents.  "It looks like it's fairly common for children to head to school on their own, even at your age, at least."

"RK, I'm like... a hundred.  At least.  _I_ don't even know my real age.  Especially if you count the Solaris part of me.  I'm not _actually_ a child," she growled, "which is all the more reason this whole 'school' thing is stupid.  I have the knowledge of a thousand timelines and I'm taking third grade _math_."

"I admit that, mentally, you far out class an elementary school level, there are some subjects where not even a university level class would offer you much.  But it was easier to put you in a school based on your physical body than your mental age.  Mira managed to get you into some higher level classes within the school, but that's the best we can do for the time being without drawing in too much attention.  It's a complicated situation-"

"This is why this entire school thing is stupid to begin with!  I don't _need_ it!"  Without thinking about it, she threw her arms in the air in frustration, forgetting that she needed those to remain on RK's back and went flailing when she lost her balance.  Luckily, before she could plummet into cold, wet snow, RK reached back and stabilized her, waiting until her arms were firmly wrapped around his neck before letting go again, "in any case," she huffed indignantly, "it's all stupid."

"A lot of kids your age seem to share your sentiment," RK commented, though smirked slightly at the growl it got from the little girl.  That maybe had been a bit of a jab, and it seemed to get the point across as Itara huffed and went quiet again.  They made it to the station, getting the usual amount of strange stares from both the other children, as well as the couple of parents that walked with them.  Hopefully they got used to their presence before long and the stares stopped, or at least lessened.  It would be nice to not grab attention _everywhere_ for once.

Once the train arrived, the other kids piled in while the parents remained, waving goodbye and reminding their children of various forms of 'behave' and 'be back by dinner'.  RK was the only one to step into the train with them, though the rest of the train, at the very least, had the usual mix of adults, children, teens, humans, and mobians going about their daily morning routines.  It wasn't completely packed, but it was at least busy enough that hardly anyone looked up from what they were doing to notice every new person that boarded.  That was both some small relief to RK... but also being in a small, closed space with so many others put him on edge.  _If_ anything were to ever happen, it would be a hard situation to escape unnoticed.  Perhaps he should put a couple of contingency plans in place, for both him and Itara just in case.  He would have to look into it more later.

For now, he needed to show Itara which stop to get off at, since there were several of them throughout the ride.  The one they were looking for, specifically, was just past the main part of the city at a station on the other side of the mansion Itara's family had lived in.  It would have been far out of the way to try and take from their previous base, since they were so far out in the forest, but being in the suburbs offered a number of conveniences they hadn't had before.

As he was studying the map and the stops to explain them to Itara, however, he felt a slight tug from behind him and first looked to Itara, thinking she wanted his attention, but when she only stared at him curiously, and the tug came again, he realized it wasn't her and looked fully behind him.  The tug came from his tail.  A small human child had grabbed onto it and was now _grinning_ up at him.  RK looked briefly around him before looking down again, raising an eyebrow.  He didn't necessarily want to threaten anyone, but his urge to throw the child across the train was rising the longer he remained.  Unfortunately, none of the nearby adults seemed to be paying attention to him, either, so he had to wonder if one of his parents were even with him.  It was a bit harder to tell who was related to whom with humans, since they were generally all one species.

"I suggest you cease that immediately," he finally stated as calmly as he could manage, but still wanting his point to get across.

"Ya gonna _make_ me?"

Well.  He could.  Easily.  But that would be trouble he didn't need.  Itara focused back in at the conversation and looked to RK, first, before following his eyesight to see the other kid still grasping tightly onto the long, furry tail.  "No, but I will," she hissed, knowing she had more freedom to threaten the kid than RK did, being the same size.

"Oo, I'm so scared of a _girl_ ," the boy laughed, giving RK's tail another tug, finally getting the attention of some others.  RK secretly hoped one of them was the boy's parent so they could avoid further provocation, but there appeared to be no such luck.

Itara rolled her eyes, secretly wishing for her powers again, she'd show him a thing or two, but unfortunately it relied on physical, or verbal, means at the moment.  While debating how to deal with it, however, she heard a small whisper from behind her and turned an ear around to see if she could pinpoint it.  It took her a minute to realize it was coming from her backpack.  Kipper.

Well.  Maybe.

Climbing down from RK's back, she walked around behind him and opened the zipper to let Kipper out.  Once he disappeared into the floor, she closed it back up and walked back around to glare the kid down, "you should stop before you re-regret it."

The other kid just laughed and turned towards her now, letting go of RK's tail, finally, but stood tall in front of Itara, mocking, "wuh-wuh-what ya gonna do about it?"  Itara only stared.  He was a good bit taller, and he seemed to take amusement in that fact, she was small even for a mobian, but his attempts to intimidate her got little more than an eye roll.  She had faced far, _far_ scarier horrors than a little human brat.  When he refused to back off and took one step too close to her, before even RK could step in, black goo seeped up from the floor underneath him, keeping him from moving either closer or away.

As soon as the kid noticed, it was Itara's turn to grin, and her turn to step closer, using what little control of her powers she had to briefly flash the whites of her eyes a molten red, switching the purple and green of her irises around, as she whispered, " _I.  Suggest.  You.  Run._ "  As soon as his confusion turned to panic to fear, Itara stepped back, the black goo disappeared, and the kid went running, crying, to the other side of the train.  Itara smiled, satisfied, turning away from the rest of the train riders to let Kipper back into her bag, and grinned happily up at RK, who only lifted an eyebrow.  At least it made the kid leave.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to deal with him again.

The stop they needed came up before long and RK let Itara back onto his back, stepping off the train in the open station, pointing at a nearby map to let her know which stop they had gotten off at and which direction she needed to head afterwards.  Unlike the mid-city stations, which had closed-off buildings for the trains, both the stop by their base and the one to the school were open-air stops with two sets of tracks going either way.  The school was about a ten minute walk down the road.  Average ten minutes.  It was faster for RK, but it would be slower for Itara.

"Keep Kipper from causing trouble while you're at school, Itara," he warned, "and don't use him to get out of classes, either."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled, the satisfied smile fading from her face again.  "Am I going home on my own?"

"No, I'll come pick you up so wait for me at the entrance, alright?  I want to make sure you know where you're going.  I'm also planning to do some grocery shopping on my way home, since I'm out, anyway, is there anything specific you wanted me to pick you up?"

She hummed in thought, shrugging, "as long as we have plenty of snacks, I'm fine.  Maybe some chocolate cookies?"

RK nodded, having already had the cookies on the list to begin with.  She was an easy guess most the time.  There was little she seemed to love more than cookies, for whatever reason.  Except maybe those strange store-bought brownies with the colored candies.  But he only got those for her on occasion, since they never lasted long when they were around.  Even when he told her only one a day, they somehow managed to 'vanish' within two.  She never knew why or where they could possibly have gone.  Clearly Kipper ate them.

Reaching the front of the school, he let her back down onto the ground again, watching the other kids arriving and nodded to the teacher assigned to watch the arriving students.  "So I should be here by the time you get out, but just in case I'm running late, for whatever reason, wait for me here, alright?"

"Yeah, alright," Itara sighed, trying to avoid looking at her fellow classmates.  It was the first day back from winter break so at least she wasn't the only one who was bemoaning having to return, but it didn't mean she would find any solidarity with any of them over it.  She had other reasons she didn't want to return that they could never understand.  "You sure I have to-"

"Yes.  Behave yourself, make sure Kipper behaves, I will have cookies waiting once you get home."

She perked, ever so slightly, at the mention of having cookies once she suffered through the school day, but immediately returned to her previous look of boredom as she waved and turned around.  RK smirked, watching her walk into the school grounds, and then turned around to head back down the road.  He would need to find a different shopping center for the time being, but he should still be able to find what he was looking for fine.  He had a built-in GPS, after all.

* * *

 

He hadn't expected it to be quite _this_ busy.  Of course, he had expected busy, it was further into the city where there were considerably more people, it was a more active area, and then there would naturally be others from his area that would have to go further out to do their shopping, as well.  So he expected crowds.  But he hadn't expected the shopping district to be holding an event.

There were people, humans and mobians alike, absolutely everywhere, packed into such tight spaces RK wondered how they even moved through such a mob, or why they bothered, in the first place.  Not even the sky above him was totally empty as the mobians that could fly had thought it easier to get through the crowds by air were swarming about.  But then there were also a number of them, and hand-controlled robots, holding up signs and putting on shows to draw attention.  He had never seen so much hustle and bustle in his long, mostly-inactive existence, and worse... he had to get through it.  Without punching someone.

Letting out a quick puff of steam, he looked around for the clearest route through, already knowing where he would need to go, and debated for a moment just going by the roofs.  Of course the city was big enough that this wasn't the only shopping center around, but it was the most extensive one and the only one with some of the items he needed.  He could get the more basic items elsewhere, but considering what it was taking just to get through a crowd, he thought it best to get what he needed here now to avoid having bags knocked around and trampled later on.

As much as he tried to avoid it, he eventually muscled his way through to the first store he was looking for, about halfway into the crowded square, and only had a brief moment of respite in the slightly less packed store front.  There was at least room to walk here, but it was no less busy than any other store.  At least he would only need a small basket, rather than one of the larger carts, and went to grab one and start his shopping mission.

Anything he could get further out, he would.  Plus, from what he'd read, it was better to get colder items towards the end of a trip so they aren't out in the open too long.  Especially anything that needed to be frozen.  He would get those as close to home as possible.  For now, however, he just needed to find the brownies he intended to get Itara, since it was one of the few places that actually had them.  Why were they so hard to get ahold of?

In addition, there were specific ingredients for tonight's dinner he could only get here.  Well, the other center had it, as well, but he knew for a fact the store he got them at was destroyed.  That would take some time to rebuild and restock.  Maybe he should alter his menu plans until everything was rebuilt.  He wanted to avoid coming _here_ as much as possible.

Heading down the aisles, still trying to avoid bumping into anyone, he mapped out the most efficient path to get what he needed and leave and thought it best to start towards the back and move forward, based on the layout.  He'd nearly bumped into someone a couple times already when they walked out from another aisle directly in front of him, forcing him to a complete stop until they passed by again.  Mortals, he had noticed, were considerably less aware of their surroundings than he expected.  Though perhaps having a Proximity Meter built in gave him an unfair advantage.  Or disadvantage.  It was incessant at the moment and his inability to turn a number of his faulty programs off was only making his irritation worse.  Luckily nothing was reading at a high risk priority, but just having people constantly and unexpectedly in and out of his range was wreaking havoc on his systems.

Turning down an aisle, hoping to get out of the bulk of the traffic, he started scanning the shelves for any of the items he needed.  He realized, a bit too late, that he'd gone down the wrong aisle; he needed the one next to it.  However, as soon as he started for the end, he noticed it was being blocked by two inconveniently placed carts without their attending shoppers.  Was he allowed to move them, himself?  He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, though.

Instead, he turned around and headed for the other end of the aisle, luckily there were two... but before he got far, he realized there was a group of three just _standing_ at the entrance.  Talking.  He was trapped in an unintentional pincer move.  Letting out another puff of annoyance, he looked back and forth between the carts and group, wondering what to do, eventually deciding to just scan the items on the shelf again.  He knew there was nothing there he needed, but one or the other had to move eventually and he wanted to avoid confrontation.

He already couldn't wait to get back to the base.

Itara wouldn't be home, even Kipper was with her and couldn't bother him, and he could lock up and remain down in the lab, just working on Metal Sonic.  It would be _quiet_.  Even if Lynda decided to come by _again_ , he likely wouldn't hear the door from the lab and could just ignore it.  He would need to repair some of his own systems, while he was at it.  He could feel some of them overheating already.

Finally, _finally_ , the group at the far end of the aisle moved on and, before anyone had the chance to corner him again, RK all but bolted out.  Of course, he was almost immediately cut off as soon as he did, barely catching himself in time to stop before running right into a cart that felt the need to very suddenly appear in his path.  The woman behind it even went so far as to throw him a dirty look, despite stopping before he reached her.

Was that the same woman that nearly ran into him before?

RK shook his head, it didn't matter.  He just needed to finish and _leave_.  Once the woman was down another aisle and the road was open again, he went where he needed and found the section the brownies would be in.

Should be in.

Should have been in.

 _They were out_.

Reaching up to rub his forehead, he took a moment to cool his heating systems before opening another window to look for another store that might have them, heading back down the other side to at least finish what he needed to do there.  There were still a couple items he needed here, he could get them and leave and find another place with the annoyingly hard to find candied brownies.

This was only the first store.

Produce was next.  That was towards the front and put him up by the registers so he could finish.  Luckily, there were no outstanding incidents regarding the vegetables he needed and he was on his way out.  Having his next destination planned out, he walked down to the registers, looking for the emptiest one to shorten his trip, though all the lines were likely longer than they normally were due to the event.  The shortest one still had two or three people, and at least one, if not two, in every line had very full carts that would be a considerable wait to get through.  But there wasn't much he could do about it.  He decided on one and started towards it... when the back of a cart caught the side of his claws and jolted both him and the cart awkwardly sideways.

He turned to apologize, knowing the two long, metallic claws that vaguely mimicked the spikes on his namesake's fists often caught on various materials when he wasn't overly aware of them.  Except that when he turned to face the person he bumped into—or rather, bumped into him—he saw the same woman that had nearly gotten herself ran over twice already during that one, singular shopping trip.  There was a brief moment of realization between the two before all Hell broke loose.  While RK did his best to keep his temper in check, the woman made no such efforts and turned into a screaming tantrum in the middle of the clearing, gathering all the attention RK didn't want.

The temptation to just flip her cart over and leave her to deal with the mess was so high he had to keep his hand wrapped tightly around the basket his hook was previously holding to keep from doing so.  Instead, he forced out a half-assed apology and walked away without another word.  He never wanted to shop in this area again, if only to lessen his chances of ever seeing that woman again.

Making his way to the far side of the line of registers, he stood in a longer line just to avoid going near the woman again, and eventually got through and back out of the store again.  But what should have been relieving, only served as a reminder that the entire square was a mob pit.  Audibly groaning, he fixed the bag in his hook and started pushing his way through again.  He was growing less and less concerned with getting yelled at for pushing the longer it went on.

At the very least, his next stop was ever so slightly less hectic.  There were still a lot of people to deal with, and instead of a screaming woman that constantly cut him off there was a screaming toddler running rampant and touching _everything_ it could get its tiny paws on.  RK got what he needed and was out before the urge to punt the terror across the store took over fully.

But with those two taken care of, he could finally at least leave the hectic shopping center and move on to the further off stores.  Even if the other places were still busy, he doubted anything could ever be as hellish as what he'd already dealt with.  Making sure his groceries were properly packed, and he had enough room to move again, he took off in full run.  It was only a five-minute run, at the most, but it was enough to get _some_ of the aggression RK had built up out.  He still wanted to punch something.  Or everything.

If he ever came face to face with Robotnik again, he was going to punch him square in the face for sending that bot out and making him go through this nightmare.  He suddenly regretted not getting in on that fight.

Shaking his head, he let out a long puff of air once he arrived in front of the next store.  Outside of the brownies, this should be his last stop.  Once he felt calmer again, he walked into the store and mapped out the most efficient course to get what he needed and leave quickly.  Grabbing a basket again, he started towards one side and, instead of going back to front, decided to work side to side.  This way, frozen goods were the last stop before heading out.

The store was still relatively busy, but nowhere near as bad as before.  He had plenty of room to walk, there was no chance of pincer attacks, and he kept a sharper eye out for people walking into the aisles suddenly.  Making his way down his list, there were a few items that were still out that he decided he would just have to get later.  He didn't want to go anywhere else anymore, he wanted this shopping _done_.  He had to set a number of fruits back into their containers before he crushed them on the spot when he noticed at least half of them were overripe, but beyond that he managed to finish his shopping and head out again.

He even found a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for Itara.

Honestly, as far as he was concerned, that was better than the store-bought brownies.  He just wanted to get home, put the groceries away, and lock himself in the silence of the lab.  He could get brownies for her later when he picked up the rest of what he was missing.  For today, he was done.

Getting all the groceries tightly packed and making sure he wouldn't lose any of them on the run home, he walked out of the shop and down the street, mapping out the run back, and took off.  Finally.  Finally, he could get home.  He would need a considerable recharge once he did, as his overheating systems used far more power than they should have during the day.

The run home was much shorter than the train ride out and he sighed in relief when the house came into view.  Digging into his coat pockets for the keys, and growling when he couldn't find them right away, he got the door unlocked and let out an audible, loud, sigh of relief.  Locking the door behind him, just in case, he went to the kitchen, put everything away, set the cookies out on the counter for later, and made his way down to the lab again.

He wasn't sure how long it would be still until he could get Metal Sonic activated.  The larger, specially designed computer made the job easier but he still wasn't sure how much damage was done to the core processors.  Metal had been redesigned to handle Chaos Energy at some point, but an exceptional amount of it had pulsed through him during the fight with Solaris, enough to actually affect the Sun God.  But there had been signs of active programs once he got him hooked up, so they had at least made progress.  Then there was the shock that caused the move in the first place.

Of course, there would be a lot to explain and deal with once Metal Sonic was awake.  They didn't know how much he would remember and he hadn't been particularly _happy_ with him the last time they actually talked.  Not to mention Metal Sonic was an inherently act-first, ask-questions-later kind of robot and the likelihood of a fight, even if he was obviously at a disadvantage, was extremely high.  RK wanted him fixed, of course, but he wasn't ready to deal with him _being_ fixed _just yet_.  Especially not today.

"In any case, at least I can get back to it now," he stated aloud, descending the lab stairs.

"Back to what, exactly?"

RK stopped short, staring across the room from the bottom step at the glowing red eye narrowed dangerously at him from the charging station.

For fuck's sake.


	5. Unexpected Outcomes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Metal Sonic is active and monsters start appearing at Itara's school, along with an unfortunately familiar face.

RK stared at the broken, still malfunctioning robot across the lab, debating how best to deal with his early reactivation.  Of course, he was glad to see his companion moving and, well, mostly speaking again, but at the same time he knew the situation was precarious and needed to be handled correctly to avoid fallout.  Though, at least one uncertainty was answered with the other robot's second question.

"Who are you and what is your objective?  Why are you in this lab?"

He looked ready to strike, though RK wondered if it was because he didn't know the extent of his own damages.  At least he could read he was within Robotnik's lab, or what used to be his lab, anyway, which meant basic lines of communication were functioning.  Opening his own lines, he watched the single red eye glow as he allowed the other bot to read his model number and basic information.

"Metal Series 03: Metal Knuckles... according to my database, you are inactive."  The blue robot lifted the remaining clawed hand, pointing a finger and demanding, "Explain."

RK let out a puff of air and moved towards the computer, responding, "There isn't enough time in two timelines to explain everything.  It'd be better if I just-” He stopped, however, when Metal Sonic moved back into a defensive position.  "I'm not looking for a fight, Metal.  You're badly damaged, let me help repair you."

"Where is Dr. Robotnik?  I should report to him to be repaired."

RK's brows furrowed.  Was his loyalty chip not destroyed in the blast, after all?  Then again, it sounded more like Metal Sonic was working off a bare minimal programming rather than any active decision.  He decided to test the waters.  "Robotnik isn't present, you'll need to authorize your own repairs."

The red eye glowed.  When it returned to normal, it looked towards the large computer and then back at RK, "authorization inaccessible.  Refer to Dr. Robotnik for further analysis."

Inaccessible.  Not outright denied.  It was system damage, not the loyalty chip.  "As I said, Robotnik isn't present, let me do an override so I can repair you.  Power back down and I can continue your repairs."  But once again, when he moved towards him, Metal Sonic went on the defensive.  He wasn't going to make this easy, was he?  "Don't make me fight you, Metal, even without your current damage I'd win."

"Is that a threat?"

"If you take it as one, it is."

Admittedly, he probably should have attempted to de-escalate the situation a bit better, rather than prompting a fight, but his need to punch something won out over his interest in keeping Metal whole.  Thus, when the blue robot moved back into an attack stance after his comment, he responded with his own defensive one, planting himself firmly in place and egging the other robot to try his hand.  It wasn't until the heavily off-balance, sparking bot was crashing into him that he was reminded how bad of an idea fighting him was.  Watching even more pieces shatter and dent, and even some snap off when the much larger warbot smashed him back into the ground, RK decided to hold the other one down to avoid accidentally damaging him further.

Unfortunately, realizing he was at a distinct disadvantage, Metal Sonic shot off the apparently still active laser in the middle of his chest.  It only grazed RK, as he rolled out of the way of it, but the sudden hole blasted through the roof of the lab and the house on top had RK ready to punch him a second time.  He didn't have time for those kinds of repairs!  And Chaos forbid anyone actually saw the beam of light that shot up through the middle of their house.  Doubling down on his grip to keep the other bot in place, he felt a quick zap of electricity before the glowing red eye below him went dark again and Metal Sonic stopped clawing at his arm with his one remaining hand.

It took him a moment to calm back down, especially once a puff of snow fell all the way through down to the lab, but with a sigh and grunt, he pulled the now inactive bot up and over to the charging station.  He wasn't sure if it was him or the use of the laser that caused Metal's short, or some other over-exertion that likely occurred, but he was equally concerned and relieved to see him quiet again.  At least he had an idea of what happened and would be more careful with repairs.  It seemed like his AI needed to be turned back on first.

 

* * *

 

“So did you do anything special over the break?”

A young mobian squirrel looked up from his backpack to face his friend, nodding, “Yeah, we went to visit some family out of town.  How about you?”  He pulled a notebook out and began scribbling, trying to pretend he was being productive while they talked.

His friend, a dark-furred bat, shrugged and responded, “Nah, we had family come here this time.  My dad wanted to make this big adventure out of taking them to see Solaris’ shrine but there was some kind of attack the day we were supposed to go.”

“No way, what happened?”

“Some kind of weird monster appeared around the shrine and nearly destroyed it before it was driven off.  I didn’t see it but I heard it was some kind of horned purple monster running rampant through the city.”

Itara turned an ear back towards the two classmates talking across the room.  She’d been eavesdropping a little, but was about to stop when they mentioned an attack, assuming it was the one that happened in the shopping district.  She had heard nothing about this monster, though.  She would have to look further into it.  Later.  For the time being, she had to make it through the rest of the school day.  The two continued chatting about the incident, eventually moving into holiday topics Itara cared little about, and thus put an end to her eavesdropping.  Lunch was next, and then her robotics class after that, so she was closer to the easier half of the day.

As soon as the bell rang for lunch period, she packed up and, waiting until everyone else was gone as she always did, made her way out of the classroom.  There were several grades in the one school so they did lunch in blocks of two or three, meaning she only had to deal with the third and fourth graders.  She still preferred to be as far away from everyone as possible and it became considerably easier when RK packed her a lunch.  She didn’t even have to go to the cafeteria, she could head directly for the stairs at the back of the building and avoid everyone.

Once she was out of sight of her fellow classmates and the teachers assigned to watch them, she reached back to open her backpack and let Kipper free, watching him float up beside her as she sat down on the bottom two steps.

“You really shoulda let me scare those kids in your class,” the doll huffed, floating around in front of her as she pulled her little wrapped lunch out of her bag and opened it to see what RK packed.  “And clean your backpack better, it’s all cramped in there.”

“You’re the one who… followed me,” Itara stated, bored and poking at the bagel in her lunchbox.

“Well, yeah, cuz I thought you’d be more fun than Momma Bear.”  When she gave him no response, he continued, “you hear those kids talkin’ about the attack down in the city?  The one that almost destroyed your _dad’s_ special little shrine?  Bet that’s buggin’ ya.”  He was looking to goad her into a fury and she knew it well enough.

“I did,” she frowned, setting the bagel back down after finally picking it up, “I want t-to look into it as soon as I can.  But the computer room’s being used right now, so I’ll have to check later.”  Looking over her lunch, she spotted the cookie packed underneath a pile of carrots and smiled, digging it out and munching on it immediately.  There were still issues she was working out regarding her dad, but his shrine being attacked was too important for her to ignore.  Could she convince RK to take her into that part of the city after school?

“What do you think it might have been, huh?  Maybe Robotnik?  Maybe Shadow remembered the past timelines and wants to destroy Mephiles before he can reappear?”  Itara visibly hitched at the suggestion, getting a grin from the doll, “maybe there’s some new enemy looking to lure your dad out and fight him.”

Itara put the remains of her cookie down, staring off, her brows furrowed.  Was it just a rampaging monster?  Or was someone directly targeting her dad?  Did her dad even know about it?  He hadn’t answered her since before the reset, even after the flux in her powers.  Maybe he was unaware of what was happening right now.  Shaking her head, she picked her cookie back up, “I’ll ch-check after school.”

Realizing he wasn’t getting the response he wanted, Kipper huffed in annoyance and floated back down to sit on her backpack, “yeah, whatever.  You weren’t more fun than the momma bear, after all.”  She eyed him suspiciously, and then went back to her food, wanting to at least eat before lunch period ended.

On her way back, before the lunch bell rang again and Kipper was firmly stuffed into the bottom of her backpack, she caught sight of Sceira across the hall and narrowed her eyes, if only briefly.  Before she could fully formulate a trick to play on her this time, she heard quiet whispers of monsters from the other side of the hall.  Giving Sceira one final dirty look, Itara turned back around to follow the voices, realizing they were coming from the teacher’s lounge.  Glancing around a quick moment, she pressed an ear up against the door to listen in on the conversation.

“…aren’t too far, are they?”

“Unfortunately not, no.  It looks as though someone’s on its tail but if it doesn’t stop it could run right by the school.  We should make sure the children stay inside until it passes.”

“First period lunch should be ending soon so we’ll just inform second and maybe third period that they need to remain inside during their lunches today due to the cold.”

“Yes, I think that’s best.  Please let the other teachers know, I’ll keep an eye on its progress from here.”

Itara’s eyes narrowed, but when she heard footsteps coming towards the door, she scrambled away from it, catching her own foot in the process and going tumbling face-first into the floor as soon as the door opened.  The teacher stared down at her, confused, while she remained in place for a moment, too embarrassed to move.

“Ms. Sheera, mind explaining yourself?”

Itara winced at the name but drew herself back to her feet, keeping her head down.  It was her least favorite part of still going to this school.  The constant reminder, all around her, right in her ‘name’, of the hedgehogs in the mansion.  She did her best not to think about them, as it always caused a tightness in her chest that took hours to get rid of, but every time they used the last name she was enrolled with, every day when they took attendance, every single class, she couldn’t escape them.  She couldn’t escape the fire she didn’t stop or even warn them about.

“S-sorry,” she stammered, keeping her eyes on the ground, “I j-just t-tripped when I was… as I was… passing by.”

Finally, the bell rang.

She could feel the teacher’s eyes on her, but she dared not look up, releasing her shoulders only when she heard them sigh and wave her on, “get on to your next class, then.”  She nodded and turned to take off down the hall again, though watched her feet more carefully as she did, not wanting to trip twice.  Her nose hurt plenty from the first time.  On the way to class she huffed angrily and shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts, refocusing back on what she’d heard before her fumble.  Something was headed for the school.  Some kind of monster.  Was it the same one that had attacked before?  If she could just see the one coming towards the school, it might help her figure _something_ out.  She had to see it.  Somehow.

But how far was it?  Someone was chasing it, what if they caught it before she could see?  She had to see, no matter what!  If she could just get out class… but she wouldn’t even know which direction they would be coming from.  There were telescopes set up on the roof for the astronomy club, if she could borrow one of those, maybe she’d be able to find it.

Perhaps a quick trip to the ‘bathroom’ was in order.

“You should have gone during lunch.  We’re starting our projects right now, it’ll just have to wait.”

Itara mentally huffed, but nodded and turned on her heel to go to her work station.  She would need another way out.  Maybe she could ask Kipper to create a distraction.  Reaching her work station, she looked over the hefty, broken robot lying across the table and the line of tools hung up around it.  They had been studying the codes and basic mechanics of Robotnik’s discarded bots up until the winter break and were told they’d be working more hands-on once they got back.  Itara had an idea what this ‘hands-on’ project was now.

Once class started and everyone was where they needed to be, the teacher confirmed her suspicions by explaining that they would be repairing these robots back to basic functionality.  The core systems were removed so they were no longer Robotnik-loyal, so if they could get them functional again, they should basically be open-software chassis.

Suddenly.  Itara had an idea.

Waiting just long enough for everyone to get started, she set her backpack up on the work table and informed Kipper of her plan quietly, using the clanking and casual conversations around the room as cover for her own.  Once he got the point, she set to work figuring out what she had to work with and what all was removed from the previous system, glad she only had to create a few minutes of distraction and didn’t need to actually fully repair the bot.  Her work on RK and Metal Sonic was about to come in handy in a new way, but she had to work fast to make sure she didn’t miss the monster.  Luckily, Kipper had been pining to cause some trouble all day and this could offer him an opportunity, as well.

Getting the basic movement functions and systems online, she let Kipper know what the bot should be able to do at its limited functionality.  With a quick warning about not causing _too_ much damage, and only minor injuries to students were allowed, she let the ghost doll out of her pack and watched him disappear under the metallic skin.  She got a quick glance around before the robot’s eyes lit up, sitting up on the desk after a quick test of its limbs, and moved to get up onto its thick, blocky feet.  Itara feigned a jump back, catching the rest of the class’s attention, and as soon as the teacher moved forward to see what was going on, the robot lurched forward and swung with a long, clawed arm, sending both Itara and the teacher diving forward to avoid it.

“Itara!  What happened?!”

“I-I d-don’t know!”  _There’s only a ghost possessing a repaired badnik.  I have no idea what it could_ possibly _be doing_.

The lumbering metal screeched against unused joints and Itara dove under the work station to get out of view while the rest of the students ran for the opposite side of the room and the teacher made sure everyone was out of harm’s way.  The red-eyed bot smashed through a nearby work station, sending parts and tools flying, causing further panic from the other students, giving Itara the opportunity to crawl away from her own and towards the further exit.  With Kipper’s rampage keeping everyone distracted, even going so far as to go running towards a line of students and smashing the giant badnik into the wall when they moved, Itara was able to slip out of the classroom easily enough.  She checked to make sure no one was coming yet before running for the nearest stairs, leaving the sounds of her classmate’s screams behind her.  Hopefully she wouldn’t get in too much trouble, but if she had to she could play the ‘maybe all its systems weren’t removed properly’ card to keep suspicions off her.  Of course, even if they had been left in, she likely could have still repaired it without the robot rampaging, but only RK would know that.

In the meantime, however, she needed to get to the roof.  Everyone on the second and third floors were still in class so all she had to do was stay out of sight in the stairwell before reaching the roof.  She also had to check that no one was on the roof, either, but if the teachers were keeping everyone inside she didn’t think there’d be anyone out there.  Nonetheless, she gave a quick glance around once reaching it, nodded at the clear view, and ran out to where the telescopes were set up.

“Alright, now let’s see what we can find,” she stated aloud, pulling the cap and cover off while scanning the horizon.  She still didn’t know which direction to look in… but it didn’t take long to figure out.  In addition to the downright commotion coming from the city side of the road, the monster that was being chased was giving off a powerful, dark aura that Itara could not only _feel_ getting closer, but she could _see_ it racing at an unimaginable speed directly towards the school.  There was also a line of G.U.N. foot soldiers chasing after it.  “Gotcha.”

Lining the telescope up, she moved it around to zoom in on the creature.  Just as her classmate described, the creature was lizard-like in shape and a deep purple and blue with a long spike coming out the front of its nose.  It ran on all fours but its front ‘paws’ were noticeably thicker around than its back ones and it shot out the occasional spike from its back to keep its chasers at bay, along with a horrible squealing noise that caused Itara’s ears to pin at the sound.

“What _is_ that, though?  It almost looks like…”  As she contemplated it, however, she lost sight of the creature as it ran around a thick tree and vanished.  “Drat.”  Moving the telescope around to try and catch it again, she only caught a quick glance here and there before it darted back out of sight again.  From what she could tell it was darting around and between trees and the outer lying buildings around the school.  The shouts of the G.U.N. soldiers started making their way to her as they drew near, though came as far off gibberish, rather than any kind of intelligible words.  “Is it within the school grounds?”

Stepping back from the telescope, she walked to the railing, looking around for signs of the creature.  Its aura was still powerful enough for her to sense so she knew it was nearby, but she couldn’t see it anywhere.  She couldn’t even see its dark glow anymore.  As she was turning to check the other side of the building, however, a heavy _thud_ landed behind her, causing her to freeze, the furious growl sending her nerves into a frenzy.

Well.  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d faced monsters down.  Just because she could no longer summon her own didn’t mean anything.  Letting out a shaking breath, she turned around to face the much larger-than-she-expected creature, eyeing her down with bright, glowing, red eyes.  Its lip curled back to reveal a row of black teeth and let out another low snarl, standing up on its hind legs to tower even further over the tiny hedgehog.

Not even Iblis’ Biter had been quite so tall; though, it hadn’t stood on its hind legs at any point, either.  At this distance, though, Itara became increasingly sure she knew _who_ the monster belonged to… but not so much why it appeared.  Unfortunately, she had no time to question further or study it as the monster reeled back, its red eyes narrowing, as it prepared to pounce.

“N-No!  B-B-Bad Nightmare!  D-Down!”

It gave no sign of understanding, however, as it only bared its black fangs once more and leapt.  Itara quickly curled over, covering her head and preparing for the attack, knowing she had no hope of fighting back or running.  Suddenly, a shot rang out and before Itara had time enough to uncurl, she felt herself being grabbed around the waist and lifted up and away from the crashing monster.  She heard its roar as it smashed into the telescope, likely shattering it, and bashing into the metal railings.  Another shot rang out, followed by a yelp and a second thud.  Itara kept her eyes shut tight until she felt whoever picked her up land again and even then waited until she heard them speak before she dared open her eyes.

“You shouldn’t be up here.”

“ _S-Sorry_ ,” she stammered, her eyes shooting open as she also recognized the deep, slightly irritated voice.  She looked down at the red, black, and white shoes and long black and red legs above them and her ears pinned back in horror.  Keeping her eyes glued to the ground, she debated how to handle the situation, though the other hedgehog set her down on the higher ground of the roof after a moment.

“It’s dead now, at least.  You should get back to… class,” he continued, walking just ahead of her, talking quietly to himself as he wondered aloud, “something is happening around here, though.  It may be best to keep an eye on things for now.”

Itara finally looked up, cautiously, at the tall black hedgehog with his back to her, studying him carefully with narrowed eyes.  He wasn’t even talking to her.  He had saved her, put her back down, and now had his back to her.  Was it possible… not even Shadow remembered?  Surely he could at least _sense_ something?  As curious as she was, she didn’t want to test her theory.  Not now.  Not here.  The last time she was caught off-guard around Shadow, without RK anywhere near, it… didn’t end well for her.  Instead, she only wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

But she also wanted answers about the monster.

She knew what they were… but she didn’t know why.  Could Shadow possibly know?  Did she even want to ask him to find out?  Well, it could be for her dad’s sake, to find out.  Then again… it was for her dad’s sake, what happened before.  Did she want a repeat that badly?  At some point Shadow had turned back towards her, though by the time she zoned in enough to realize, he was giving her a strange look and she worried, for a brief moment, that he might have remembered her suddenly.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he began, though sounded as irritated as ever instead of reassuring.  In a way, _that_ was reassuring.  “That monster is dead and you’re fine.  There’s no need to react like that.”

Itara quickly straightened her expression and looked down, not wanting to cause any sort of suspicion.  “O-Of c-c-course,” she stammered, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt to keep her hands busy.  “I-I’m not… I didn’t… th- _thank you_.”  That hurt to say.  She knew it was common courtesy to thank someone for saving your life, not that she figured Shadow of all hedgehogs expected thanks, he only ever did exactly as he wanted and it was never for gratitude.  But she didn’t want to come off as strange in any way, and instead started looking for a way off the roof to get as far away from him as possible.

Unfortunately, when he noticed her looking around, he walked back over to her, nearly sending her back into a panic.  “I guess I should help you back down,” he sighed, picking her up around the waist again and jumping back down to the observation deck before setting her back down again.  “There, now get out of here.  I have work to do and I’m not interested in babysitting all day.”

Itara resisted a huff.  She was no baby, she could watch after herself just fine.  Mostly.  But she only nodded and turned to run for the door leading back to the staircase… tripping on her feet once again and landing face first in the concrete.  Stupid, stupid feet and their stupid tripping!  Why couldn’t she just _float_?!  Hearing a hum from behind her while she pushed herself back to her knees, she could no longer resist the glare she shot over her shoulder towards the black hedgehog, who turned away as soon as she did.  He was laughing at her!  Not out loud, but she could tell!  She’d show him!  …Someday.  Again.

Having to take a quick, deep breath to calm herself, knowing emotional outbursts tended to cause her powers to flare, she took off for the door again.  Her nose hurt again, but her ego hurt so much more.  How dare that idiot laugh at her?!

Once she was inside, back in the shade of the dark stairwell, she sighed and sat down on the top step, wanting to let her mood subside before she went back to class.  That Shadow.  That stupid, stupid Shadow.  Just because he saved her didn’t mean he got to laugh at her.  She was relieved before that he didn’t seem to remember her, but now she greatly wished she could yell at him, berate him for not even knowing what the monster was.  _She_ knew.  She saw the timeline it originally came from once.  He was clearly inferior for not knowing.  She would rant about this more later, to Kipper and RK.  But, she supposed, for now, she should probably return to class.  She didn’t know how long Kipper could keep up the distraction.

Sighing heavily again, she pushed herself back up, though slouched forward as she headed back down the staircase, glaring at the steps in front of her the entire way down.  Her mood was soured and now she just wanted to go home.  Besides, she wanted to see what RK thought about both the attack in the city, as well as the monster that attacked the school.  She still wanted to see if she could convince him to take her into town to check out the shrine, itself, and see what else she could learn.  Shadow had one thing right, at least—that she already knew of course—there was certainly something happening around here again.

Were the other Gods active?


	6. Updates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara and RK recap each other on the events of the day, including the reactivation of Metal Sonic.

RK crossed his arms, resisting the glare threatening to come to his face as the headmaster explained to him what happened.  Itara awkwardly shuffled beside him, doing her best to look every direction except at either of them.  When the headmaster was finally done, RK let out a puff of air and looked down at the little hedgehog, who briefly glanced up at him before looking off again.  She showed far less remorse than she ought to, considering the chaos she—likely purposely—caused that day.

“Luckily no one was badly injured, but the damages to the classroom were severe.  Of course, Itara isn’t entirely to blame, it’s possible the robot she was given was defective and not properly disarmed.  But she won’t be able to finish the project now, so we’ll be sending her home with some extra online homework.  Were you able to get ahold of a new computer to be able to do that?  If not, she can continue staying after school to finish her work,” the man explained, looking over thick black glasses with slightly narrowed eyes.

RK debated for a moment, almost tempted to say they didn’t have one just yet to make Itara suffer a little more, but dismissed the thought and explained, “She’ll be able to do her homework just fine, but thank you for the offer.  I’ll make sure it gets done.  I’m sorry for the trouble she’s caused.  Already.  On the first day back.”  He shot a glance to the little girl, but once again, she was looking elsewhere.

“Accidents happen, as I said, at least no one was badly hurt.  But I’m glad to hear she’ll be able to get that done without a problem.  Then, if you’ll excuse me.”

They nodded to one another and the headmaster returned to the school while RK turned his attention to the now-whistling little girl beside him.  “I’m expecting a full explanation when we get home, Itara.”

She looked up at him, opening her mouth to argue or defend herself, but snapped it shut and nodded.  She knew RK would know more than the teachers or headmasters would about what happened, but she had a good reason she couldn’t explain right there.  It was better to get home quickly.  However, once they started towards the train station, she decided to at least throw out, “but just for the record, it was as much Kipper’s fault as it was mine.”

“I’m sure.”

The train ride home was quiet aside from RK’s occasional vague question about the day, mostly asking what _else_ she did during the day besides cause trouble.  Itara didn’t have much to tell, though, and the conversation dropped several times before they even reached the first stop.  On the walk back to the house, however, RK spoke up one more time, this time explaining, “In other news, I’ve made some… progress… with _Sparky_.”  He didn’t often use the nickname Itara gave Metal Sonic, knowing he would likely hate it if he ever heard it, but didn’t want to use his name outside amongst their nosy neighbors.

Itara looked up at him her brows furrowing, “what kind of progress?”

“You’ll see.”

She narrowed her eyes, but nodded and looked forward again, not wanting to slip on the ice.  She’d had enough of landing on her face today.  Once she was finally back inside again, she let out a long, dramatic sigh of relief, dropped her bag off her shoulders at the door, and kicked off her shoes.  “Home!  So glad to be _home_!  Today was so _long_!”

“Itara put your shoes away properly,” RK scolded, pulling his own snow-covered boots off before continuing in towards the kitchen, “I’ll make you a quick snack so I want you to tell me everything that happened today at school.  And I mean everything.  I know that robot didn’t rampage on its own.”

“No, that was Kipper,” she explained, setting her shoes more neatly in the small shoe rack and opening her backpack to pull the doll out, “I needed him to create a distraction for me so I could get to the roof.”  She could hear the sigh from the kitchen.  “Before you get mad, there’s a good reason!”

“I am _dying_ to hear it,” RK grumbled.

“…You’re a robot.”  She got an annoyed glare from around the corner and held her hands up, “okay, okay.  Fine.”  Following him to the kitchen and taking the newly made sandwich, she went back to the couch to start explaining, RK following after her and Kipper floating up to the back to get comfortable.  “Two of my classmates were talking about some kind of attack in the city so I wanted… decided to listen in, but then they said Solaris’ shrine was attacked by some kind of monster so, of course, I knew had to look more into it.”  She barely missed the eye roll from the robot standing beside the couch, watching her.  “And while I was walking back from lunch I heard the teachers talking about some kind of monster headed towards the school, so I had to look into that, t-too.  So I had Kipper create a distraction by possessing the robot I was supposed to be repairing in my robotics class and I slipped out and went up to the roof to see if I could find it.

“And I did!  But then I lost sight of it when it started running around the sides of the buildings and then it was behind me.  It was tall.  Anyway, it tried to attack me but then I kind of got saved and… well,” she glared down at the sandwich in her hands, looking up at RK, who was still patiently waiting beside the couch.  “It was Shadow.”  RK frowned, uncrossing his arms and moving around to sit beside her to look over her.

“Are you okay?  Did he recognize you?  I’m assuming not because you’re fine and home, but-”

“No, I guess not even he remembers the past timelines.  Which is good, I suppose.  Except he laughed at me!  Not outwardly, he just made a noise, but inwardly I knew he was laughing at me because I tripped!  Do you know how many times I’ve tripped today, RK?!  My nose hurts so much!”  The tiny girl huffed angrily, puffing out her cheeks and getting a slight smirk as response from RK.  Kipper burst into a fit of laughter.  She glared at them both and continued, “Anyway!  Shadow is dumb, but… but that’s not the important part.  The important part is the monster that attacked, if it’s the same one that attacked the shrine, or even the same type.”

“Did you know what it was, then?”

“Yes,” she nodded, “It was one of Dark Gaia’s Nightmares.”

RK’s brows furrowed, running his database for any information on Dark Gaia.  “Another of the Gods?”

“Yes.  The important thing now is that we figure out why one of Gaia’s minions are running around and I think we should go into town and look in on the shrine.  That was where it headed first, apparently.”

RK hummed, running over what he knew of Gaia, “I don’t know, Itara… maybe it’d be best if we didn’t get involved with this.  You said Shadow took care of the Nightmare, maybe we should leave it to-”

“No!  We have to at least look into it!”

Sighing again, RK stood, “well, maybe.  We’ll talk about it later, for now there’s something else I want to show you.  Come down to the lab.”  Itara huffed at him, but grabbed Kipper and jumped off the couch to follow him.  “As I said earlier, I made some progress with Metal Sonic.  It turns out he managed to activate himself between the time we left this morning and when I got home; but not only were his memories of the previous events wiped, but his AI was inactive.  At first I thought his loyalty chip might still somehow be intact, but I realized he was only following a base coding.  Once I got him offline again I decided to start there and managed to get a good bit back online.”

“Is that even a good thing?” Itara questioned, unsure about having Sparky’s AI online solely because she remembered a number of angry, violent meetings with the blue bot.  Unlike Sonic’s inherently cheerful nature, Sparky almost seemed to embody the complete opposite and was just _always_ in a bad mood.

“Well,” RK began, giving it a moment of thought, “I admit he’s a bit… grouchy… but in the long run it’ll be better to have his AI than the core programming.  For reasons you so _aptly_ demonstrated today at school.”  He glanced back at her, getting a sheepish grin from the small hedgehog, and turned back around to continue leading the way into the lab.  “In any case, I managed to get him active again.”

Itara made another disgruntled face, but followed RK across the lab from the stairs towards the large computer and the charging stations… where the exceptionally damaged blue robot sat, staring towards the large screen running various diagnostics.  Itara took an unconscious step behind RK once they reached him, for reasons she would never admit, and waited for the other robot to notice their presence.  It took a minute, but eventually a glowing red eye slid over towards the larger red robot, narrowing dangerously, but not moving this time.  Instead, he looked down at the smaller figure practically hiding behind RK’s legs.  It took until Itara slowly glanced out from around said legs and stared up at him with curious, but cautious and unsure, large, purple and green eyes before he reacted.

“You!”

Itara jumped at the sudden fury and hid behind RK’s legs again before she even realized she was doing it.  RK, on the other hand, threw up his hands in her defense, exclaiming, “calm down, Metal.  She-”

“You said he didn’t remember!” Itara whined, looking up and around his side.

“He didn’t, but I-”

“I should destroy you right here and now, you little anomaly!”

“Rude!  You should be grateful we didn’t just leave you a pile of scrap!”

“Why you little-!”

“Enough!” RK shouted, cutting them both off, glaring between them as he stepped over to the computer, leaving Itara out in the open.  She immediately went back on the defensive and gripped Kipper tighter, taking a step back and preparing to run.  Metal Sonic scowled at them both, though as soon as he made a movement to get up from the table he sat on, RK shot a warning glare his way.  “Enough bickering.  To explain, Itara, I fixed as many memory files as I could access and filled in a few of my own so it would be easier to explain the current situation to him.  And Metal, you created that _anomaly_ so I suggest you back off.  She may be a part of Mephiles, but you’re the one who put that power in a physical body.  You’re just as responsible for her existence as Solaris.”

“Oo, Momma Bear’s in threat mode,” Kipper snickered, catching a disgusted Metal Sonic’s attention.

“What the hell is that thing?”

“Tails Doll, or at least, that’s what he used to go by.  Itara named him Kipper.  If you don’t have a file on him I can share the information with you.  I found him in an antique shop in… I suppose the original timeline.  He didn’t talk back then, though,” RK explained, turning to the computer to transfer some files and check the scans, muttering as a final note, “I wish he’d go back to that.”

“I only stick around because the little ‘anomaly’ is fun,” Kipper explained, grinning, “When Momma Bear brought me home for his little baby hedgie, all the drama with her ‘daddy’ gave me more power.  Plus, sometimes she lets me destroy things.”

Itara and RK both rolled their eyes at the explanation, but Metal Sonic looked suspiciously between the three, ending on RK, “it sounds like you have a considerable _attachment_ to the anomaly _I_ created.”  He looked back at Itara again, studying her, watching her fidget uncomfortably under his gaze.  “I hope you know I didn’t free RK from that base so he could just go babysit some failed experiment of Robotnik’s.”

She looked up towards him, puffing her cheeks, before looking away again, “I’m not a failed experiment and I’m not an anomaly and I don’t need _babysitting_!  If anyone needs babysitting, it’s you!  Before I _rescued_ RK from the wreckage of that base, I went to _you_ first and warned you not to fight Sonic after you went rogue.  I told you, you’d regret it!  And what did you do?  You fought him anyway, and lost, and ended up back with Robotnik.”  Spinning back around, she stuck her tongue out at him, exclaiming, “So there!  Neeeeh!”

Metal Sonic recoiled, mostly at the memory, but only for a moment before growling again.  Before either RK or Itara could react, he was back off the table and had snatched the hedgehog up by the neck, glaring and growling, “I should have snapped your neck then and there, then.”  A small squeak escaped her mouth as Kipper dropped from her hands, floating out beside her, instead, watching with a hint of amusement.

“Put her down before I break your other arm off.”  The demand came out relatively calm, but the underlying threat from the warbot gave Metal Sonic the briefest of pauses.  It wasn’t until the other bot turned to glare back at his companion that he finally huffed and dropped the hedgehog, turning back towards the table to sit again.  Itara dropped with a light _thud_ , shaking only a moment before going back to glaring at the other robot, reaching up to wrap her arms as fully around her neck as possible.  She remained sitting on the ground, curling her legs up against her chest, glaring angrily over at the blue robot, her ears flattened against her head as Kipper floated back down to her.

The air in the room remained thick and tense for some time, Itara remaining curled up several feet way from Metal Sonic while Kipper floated beside her, silently laughing at the entire situation.  Metal Sonic sat on the table beside the computer and glared off in another direction while his scans ran, displeased with the entire situation and debated why he was even reactivated in the first place in such a situation.  RK remained the most outwardly calm, looking over at Itara once in a while to check that she was alright before returning to his work on the screen.  He was running several scans and repairing as many programs as possible for Metal Sonic, as well as checking which memories and what information he still retained while he was at it, matching them up to his own data, checking for corrupted files.

The room remained silent as RK worked, the only conversation happening between him and Metal Sonic occasionally when he needed something checked.  While he worked, Itara had grabbed Kipper again and got herself comfortable on the floor, still far out of the angry bot's reach, but sat quietly to watch and study.  She could see what all RK was doing on the large screen, listening in on the conversation between them, and studied the programs they were restoring to see what all she understood.  She logged what she didn't know away for later to ask RK about them.

As they were working, however, another screen popped up on the computer, showing the front door and notifying them of a visitor with low risk levels.  Though, once the image appeared with the notification, RK debated changing that risk level.  The tall, thin dyed blonde from three doors down was on their porch again, wrapped up in a thick red coat, knocking not-so-patiently on their door.  When she didn't get an answer after the first knock, she started calling out for either RK or Itara.

All four of them looked up at the screen when they noticed, Kipper shrugging and ignoring it while Itara just watched her strangely.  Why was she back again?  Despite the quick pace of her knocks and the repetitive calling, she didn't look that frantic, but she did certainly look like she wanted a response sooner rather than later.  Metal Sonic raised an eyebrow at the woman on the screen, seeming cautious of her appearance but saying nothing.  RK had already explained they were in a human neighborhood that Robotnik had set up a spy base in; he supposed it would be expected to see said humans every so often.

RK, however, seemed the least thrilled of all of them.  He let out a puff of air, hesitating to see if she'd go away on her own, but audibly sighed when it didn't seem like she would.  "I'll... be right back, I suppose," he grumbled, turning away from the computer to head up the stairs.  He stopped between Itara and Metal, however, turning to the apprehensive bot, and warning, "do _not_ touch her while I'm dealing with this."

Metal scoffed in response, shooting him a glare but looking off again at the responding glare.  "It's not like I'm in great shape to begin with."

"Precisely."  With that taken care of, he continued up the stairs to go deal with Lynda and see what she demanded his attention so badly for.  He hoped it wasn't anything too important and she was just dropping by again.  Then again, with the laser incident earlier in the day, he was concerned she had seen it and was growing suspicious.

Once he was up out of the lab and out of earshot again, Metal turned back towards the screen to watch, waiting until RK appeared just at the edge of the view at the door.  The human woman looked relieved to see him, which caught the other bot off-guard.  No one was ever _relieved_ to see one of them.

"Ah!  RK!  There you are," Lynda grinned, clapping her hands together, "I was worried something might have happened, after all.  Is Itara alright?"

RK still wasn't sure she wasn't talking about the laser, so he decided to play clueless until she explained, "she's fine, why?"

"Well, I heard about the attack on the school today!"  Ah, so that was it.  "My son goes to the same school and he told me that not only did one of the robotics projects go wild but there was some kind of monster on the roof!  I wanted to make sure Itara was alright!  My son was so frightened and he wasn't even near any of it."

RK wanted to laugh.  He resisted, though, and shook his head, "no, Itara's fine."  How much should he divulge to her, exactly, though?  Would it be safe to mention it was _Itara's_ project that rampaged?  Or that she was on the roof when said monster attacked?  No, perhaps that second part should be left out.  "Itara was in that class, however, the one with the robot incident.  But she was... well away from it when it started up."

"Oh!  She must have been so scared!"

He shrugged, "she handles things better than most."  _Because she usually causes it in the first place._ "I can guarantee it'll leave little lasting impression on her."

"What a brave little girl she must be."

"That's one word for it."  _Walking troublemaker was another._

Back down in the lab, Metal Sonic had been listening in on the conversation and narrowed his eyes, finally looking over towards the little girl who had been making faces at the incident in question.  "Who is this human?"

Itara straightened her face and looked over, eyeing him suspiciously and leaning away slightly, debating before she responded, "I don't know... some lady from the neighborhood.  She's kinda nosy."

"Is she a threat?"

"I don't think so.  I mean, I suppose I can't say for sure.  I no longer have access to my powers, since the reset, so I can't be sure of anything anymore."

There was a short silence while Metal returned his attention to the screen... before Kipper spoke up to break that silence.  "She's awfully interested in our resident warbot, it seems," he practically sneered, catching the other's attention again, getting a raised eyebrow from Itara.  "She showed up as soon as we started moving in... looks for every reason to come over here already."

"Does she work for someone?" Metal questioned, narrowing his eye again, looking between the screen and the doll grinning from Itara's arms.  "He should be wary of someone so nosy, she could be looking for a reason to oust him as a Robotnik robot for all you know.   Why is he talking so casually with her?"

"Who knows... maybe he's gotten _soft_ with the humans since going rogue," Kipper continued, his grin widening at the shift in stance in the bot.

"Then he should cease interactions with all others until he can properly realize the situation again.  We're robots designed to hunt and destroy, not fraternize and we're certainly not normal mobians."  He moved to get up off the table again, glaring at the screen and moving to tell the other off, causing Itara to jump to her feet, though still kept her distance.

"Don't cause problems we can't handle right now, Sparky," she warned, catching a much darker glare than the bot was giving the screen.  "You're barely functional and any unwanted attention could get us noticed by Sonic or Robotnik... or worse, Shadow.  Just because the timeline's been reset doesn't make them any less of our enemies."  However, Metal's attention was already gone at the mention of Shadow's name.  He seemed to zone out for a moment, pulling up every bit of information and memory regarding the black hedgehog, before his glare became all the more dangerous.

Itara's eyes narrowed further, unsure of what the other bot was thinking and questioning whether she should go get RK or not, when the remaining arm began sparking at the tips of his claws.  She jolted away, stumbling over her feet in the process, but caught herself and tightened her grip on Kipper.  "W-what are you... you shouldn't... S-Sparky don't--"

"Stop calling me _Sparky_!" he roared, the lightning blue sparks running up his arm and through the rest of his broken body, a bright yellow light lining through them as they travelled through the cables attached to him and into the large computer.  The short zapped through the basement's electrical grid, travelling all the way through the rest of the house's lines.  Several snaps and cracks ran through the computers and wires until a dull _hum_ echoed through lab and house, lights and appliances powering down.  Metal Sonic, as well, gave one final snap before leaning forward, the LED in his eyes going dark.  Itara and Kipper stared into the darkness, only the light of Kipper's gem glowing around them.

"As I said, I only-" RK stopped as the crackling ran through the house and darkened his eyes when the power suddenly hummed out.

"Oh dear, what happened?" Lynda questioned, leaning around him to look into the empty silence behind him.

"Our... power is having trouble keeping up with the appliances at the moment," RK lied, straining to keep the irritation out of his voice, "since the house went unused for so long, the wiring is a bit faulty.  I have someone coming to fix it soon so we just have to deal with it for a couple days."  He was more than sure it was Metal Sonic that caused the short.  Again.

"How dreadful, is there anything I can do to help?  Do you need to stay somewhere else until it gets fixed?  Having shorting power in this cold must be awful, especially for the little one," RK didn't miss the small grin on her face as she continued, "my place is fairly large and it's only me and my son.  You and Itara could fit comfortably, I'm sure.  Especially if it's only a couple days."

He only gave a moment of thought, or rather, pretended to give it a moment of thought to not appear suspicious, before explaining, "No, thank you, but we'll manage.  It comes on again quickly so it hasn't been a problem yet.  But if you'll excuse me, I should make sure Itara's okay and check the circuit breaker."

"Oh, right, of course," she frowned, disappointed but smiled again, "well, I should let you get to that, then.  But you know where to find me if you need anything.  At all."

RK nodded and bid her farewell, waiting until she was further down the street before closing the door and heading for the circuit board to turn everything back on.  With a few flips of switches, the power droned back on and he headed back down the lab to find out what happened.  When he reached the bottom step, Itara was up and poking at an inactive Metal Sonic, Kipper laughing _hysterically_ off to the side.

"What did you do?"  The question was more or less directed at Kipper, but Itara jumped and swung around to face him.

"I-I-I didn't d-do it!"

"Not you."  He walked over and grabbed Kipper by the tails, holding him up to eye level, scowling, "you."

Kipper just continued laughing, going incorporeal to escape the warbot's grip, and floated further away, "what makes you think I did anything?  It was _Sparky_ here who shorted everything."

"And _why_ did he do it, exactly?"

"He got angry about Lynda," Itara explained, knowing Kipper would eschew it, "he thinks she might be suspicious of our identities.  He may have a point, though.  She is awfully nosy.  What if she suspects something?"

Kipper just started laughing again, "That ain't it."

Itara tilted her head in confusion while RK eyed the doll suspiciously, shaking his head and going back over to reboot the computer, "I don't think she's suspicious, Itara.  Don't worry about it."  Crossing his arms, he leaned back while the computer started up again, annoyed that he would have to restart a lot of processes and the short would likely set them back a good bit.  He would need to have a word with Kipper later, and perhaps with Metal to avoid a _third_ repeat.  The lab was better suited to deal with higher power outputs, but it would slow a lot of repairs if it kept up.

"In any case, Itara, go find what you want for dinner and get started on your homework.  I'll be up once I run a few more diagnostics."

Itara groaned at the mention of homework, but with a side-glare from RK, she grabbed Kipper again and headed upstairs.  At least she got to decide on dinner tonight.  Today had been a long, eventful, kind of terrifying day and she wanted something good for dinner!  Maybe a cookie.  Or two.  She deserved it, as far as she was concerned.


	7. Paranoia

Itara stared up at the hastily applied boards on the hallway ceiling, perking an ear up at the thuds and scraping coming from the roof.  She hadn’t even noticed the holes until RK mentioned going out to fix them, but then she wondered how she ever missed them.  They went right through the hallway floor and ceiling, right in front of her bedroom door.  Despite the temporary attempt at a fix, the ceiling was still dripping from the snow and small paint bubbles were beginning to form around the edges where the water was running through.  She hadn’t even had a chance to ask how it happened, either, as RK was on his way out when he mentioned it and she didn’t much feel like going out to ask him about it.  It was cold outside.  She would ask when he came back in.

Instead, she turned around to go back to the kitchen.  She wanted hot cocoa while she worked on her homework.  If she had to do extra work because of the robot incident she was at least getting some cocoa for it.

Unfortunately, a lot of necessary pieces were far out of her reach.

Narrowing her eyes up at the cupboards above the counter, knowing they had not only the cup she required, but the chocolate mix, she started looking around for something to climb.  RK had warned her not to climb the counters a number of times by now, but he was busy and Kipper was usually too much of a brat to help her out unless it meant he could wreak havoc.  Climbing was clearly the only option remaining.  It was their fault for putting everything so far up.

Pulling a chair from the dining room, trying not to scrape it against the floor too much, she climbed up on it and onto the counter.  Getting her cup first and then crawling across to the door that held the cocoa mix, she smiled happily to herself when she managed to get both without knocking herself off with the doors.  Now she just had to heat up some water.  She could just… use the hot water from the sink, right?  It didn’t need to be _that_ hot.  Right?

While she was debating, setting her cup and the little packet beside her, a pair of light steps approached the kitchen. She immediately panicked, thinking it was RK coming back inside even though the steps were much lighter than his and she hadn’t heard the door open.  As she was scrambling to get off the counter, however, the drop ended up being much further than she expected and her legs gave out from underneath her as soon as she hit the floor, sending her thudding back against the counter behind her.

“Ow.”  She reached back to rub her head, but looked up once the steps stopped at the kitchen entrance, “I swear I wasn’t-!”  She stopped when she saw who it was, though, and looked away, muttering, “oh… it’s you.”

“Who did you expect, exactly?”  His tone was cold as ever, which normally meant little to Itara, she was used to cold tones, but in the current situation it annoyed her.

Huffing, she pushed herself back to her feet, avoiding eye contact as she pushed the chair over to the sink and climbed up again, “d-doesn’t matter.  What do you want?”  He wouldn’t tell, right?  He wouldn’t even know she wasn’t allowed on the counter in the first place, he saw nothing, he had nothing to tell!

The blue robot made his way further into the kitchen, scanning the area with his one functional red eye.  They’d done what they could for the time being to cover up some of his exposed wirings using what was laying around the abandoned base, but there wasn’t much and the snow made it hard to search for useable scraps.  They had removed the damaged joint from the missing arm and covered the shoulder as best they could until they could find a replacement, as well as covering the hole in his side.  RK had managed to mostly reshape the dent on top of his head and replace the damaged parts inside while Itara had pulled his ‘quills’ back into a low, loose ponytail to cover the rest.  She even repainted the charred bits for him.  His splintered legs were melded back together and the wiring reconnected to make them usable, though the faulty connections were obvious from the limp and occasional spastic jolt in his walk.  The robot had certainly seen better days, but he had also seen worse.

“I was running through the memories RK had left for me to file and check, since I had nothing _better_ to do, and the files from the apparent previous timeline came to my attention,” he explained, his tone going from irritated to a distinct bitterness directed at Itara.  She looked away from the running hot water to raise an eyebrow at him, wondering where he was going with this.  “I couldn’t help but notice the file about _Sonic’s death_ in there.  Yet with the reset timeline, he still lives.”

Itara’s face went blank before she cringed and looked away again, her ears flattening.  She had a feeling she knew what he was getting at now, and didn’t much care about it, but there was a more personal memory from that moment she tried to avoid thinking about.  “Th-that’s,” she stammered, reaching out to check the water, “S-Solaris h-had his reasons… I’m sure.”  Admittedly, she was bitter about that, but she wouldn’t say it out loud, and especially not to _Sparky_.  “What about it, _S-_ ow,” she pulled her hand back out of the steaming water, she hadn’t expected it to be quite so hot.  She found herself caring less and less about the stupid cocoa.

There was silence for a couple minutes while Itara stared at the water, trying to decide how much she still wanted the cocoa in an attempt to distract herself from the other topic.  She didn’t want to think about it.  It made her chest hurt.  For a number of reasons.  But then Sparky spoke up again, sounding more confused than irritated this time, which caught her off-guard, “what are you even doing?”

“N-nothing,” she practically whimpered, glaring down into the sink.  But her pouting came to a quick end when she heard him stepping forward again.  She jumped and turned around to face him as he moved beside her to look into the sink and cup filled with the cocoa mix.  “G-go away!  If you’re just here to bother me about stupid Sonic then I have nothing to say to you!  I don’t know why he’s alive and I don’t want him to be but I won’t question my d—Solaris!”  Her face reddened in frustration as he remained silent, watching as his eye glowed, knowing well enough what it meant from watching RK do it so often.

“Shouldn’t you be boiling that water?  Do you not even have a proper kettle?”

“N-No one asked you!”

He studied her, rolling his eye and moving back over to his spot against the wall. He moved his arm up to cross them, realized he only had one, and put it back down, glaring off.  “In any case, I only came up here to let you know, so you can let your _father_ know, that Sonic is _mine_ to kill.  And he won’t be coming back when I do it.”  Itara’s cheeks puffed as he turned his back to her, waving her off, and returning back down the hall to return to the lab.  She huffed loudly at him and stuck her tongue out, but turned back towards the sink once he was out of sight, frowning.

“…It’s not like he even talks to me anymore, anyway.”  Glaring at the sink, she grabbed her cup and filled it with the steaming water before shutting it off, setting the cup back down on the counter so she could move the chair back to the table.  She had homework to do.  But, ugh, the only computer was downstairs in the lab.  They hadn’t been able to get her a new laptop yet.  She didn’t want to be down there with that jerk.  Whining loudly, she grabbed a spoon, threw it in her cocoa, grabbed the cup—and Kipper from the couch—and headed downstairs, angrily stomping the entire way down.  She was just going to ignore his presence.  His stupid bad-memory-bringing-up presence.

* * *

 

With a huff and one final shove, RK watched the rest of the pack of snow slide off the roof and into the yard below.  He originally intended to only clear out the spot he needed to repair and a foot or so around it, as well as a path to and from the hole, for easy fixing, but ended up clearing off the entire roof.  He wasn’t overly confident in the stability of the tiling and wanted to ensure it would last through the winter, getting some of the weight off it while he was at it, and it ended up turning into a three-hour job.  But the hole was thoroughly repaired and the leaking should no longer be a problem.

Giving one final test to the stability of his fix, he nodded, packed the tools back away, grabbed the shovel, and made his way towards the edge of the roof to get down.  He hadn’t brought a ladder, as he had no trouble jumping up and down, especially from the back deck, but when he checked around to see if the snow had blocked the front door, he spotted a colorful figure standing in the driveway.

Again.

Glancing warily towards the oddly determined woman, he moved towards the back to get down, dropping the toolbox and shovel down into the snow on the back porch.  Maybe if he stayed on the roof a bit longer he could avoid a lengthy discussion.  Giving a silent sigh, he walked back around to the front and gave a short wave, calling over, “hello Lynda.”  What did she want _now_?

“Hello there!  Aren’t you cold?!”

He did only have a light jacket and his usual cargo pants and boots on, mostly to keep the moisture off more than any actual concern for the cold, itself.  But he couldn’t explain that.  “No,” he answered, crouching down at the edge of the roof, watching her walk closer, trying not to step into the deeper snow he’d dropped off.  Once she looked up again, he motioned to his fur covering, explaining, “Pretty well insulated.”

“Oh, being covered in fur really must be convenient,” she laughed.

Nodding, he questioned, “Did you need something?  Not to be rude, I just need to finish some repairs.”

“Oh!  Of course,” there was that glint again, “you really are quite something, doing that all on your own.  Home repairs in the dead of winter, wish I had someone like you around to take care of the house like that.  I usually have to hire someone to do all our maintenance.”  RK nodded again, not wanting to comment in case it caused a tangent, or roped him into doing it somehow.  He hoped she would get to her point soon.  “But, I won’t keep you long.  I just saw you working outside and thought I might let you know about the New Year’s Party.  I hold one for the neighborhood every year, it’s one of the biggest deals around here.  Since you’re new to the area you really _must_ come!  And, of course, bring your little one.  It’ll be a great opportunity for you both to get better acquainted with everyone!  You’ll come, right?”

RK had to keep the grimace off his face as he considered.  Would that be such a great idea?  He still wasn’t sure about getting too close to those in the neighborhood.  Then again, it would draw attention if they were too reclusive, as well.  But did he want to deal with Lynda for that long?  Looking off away, in thought, when he looked back at Lynda again there was a pleading look on her face.  That didn’t work for Itara, it certainly wasn’t going to work for her.  But he didn’t want to appear rude, either.  Eventually, he gave a non-descript, “I’ll have to talk with Itara about it.”

“Of course,” Lynda answered, the pleading leaving her face to be replaced by that same glint again.  He had no idea what that look even meant but he didn’t much care for it.  There was something odd in it.  Not even threatening, just… strange.  “I always prepare a big dinner for the event so people start showing up around six for it, but of course, some come later.  You two are free to come whenever you’d like.  It’d be great to introduce you to the rest of the neighbors since _everyone_ comes.  There are even some kids around Itara’s age that come so she won’t just be surrounded by us boring adults.  No need for an R.S.V.P., just come on down at some point on the 31st.”

“Alright, thank you for the invitation.”

“You’re _very_ welcome,” she grinned, giving a wave before turning to leave again.  RK watched her go again, waiting a bit longer to give it some thought before going back over to jump down off the roof.  He would need to shovel around the porches and driveway again.  It would give him some time to think about the party.  He needed to consider every possibility and risk in going or not before he talked to Itara.  For some reason, he didn’t think she would actually want to go, but there may be merit in attending.  Jumping down to the porch, grunting when the snow nearly went over his boots, he grabbed the shovel from where it stuck and started working on the back porch first.

By the time he finished the back porch, a path through the side fence, in front of the front porch, and all the way down the driveway, the afternoon had grown dark and he was soaked.  He could already feel the faux fur clinging to his chassis and knew he needed to get inside and dried off before it caused ill effects in his systems.  He wasn’t overly sensitive to water, but he wasn’t fully resistant to it, either.

Propping the shovel up against the wall, he made his way inside, letting out a long sigh.  The living room and kitchen were empty and he didn’t hear Itara or Kipper in the bedroom, though he called out for her as he pulled his boots off to leave by the door.  He pulled both his jacket and the tank top underneath off and headed for the hallway bathroom to hang them up over the shower bar, looking in on the bedroom on his way when he got no answer.  “She must be down in the lab, then.  Hopefully doing that homework she needs to do.”  He would check on her in a minute, first he needed to get out of his wet pants and dry the fur covering as much as possible.  He didn’t have nearly as much clothing as Itara, but he did at least have a couple pairs of extra pants he kept in the hall closet.

Grabbing the first article in the pile, which was a pair of looser camo sweats, and a towel from a different pile, he headed for the bathroom to dry off and get as much snow unstuck from his tail as possible.  Most the rest of him was slightly damp, but his tail had caught several chunks of snow that stuck to it in annoying little balls.  He would need to run it under some hot water to get it out and then dry it again.  Maybe he should invest in thicker pants and jacket for working in the snow so he didn’t have to worry about getting damp.  He’d  heard it wasn’t uncommon to take hot showers after working or playing in the snow, usually to avoid colds, but not only did he not get sick, but showers weren’t an option for him, either.  The only part of him that could be fully submerged in water was his tail, a part of him he would never even fully understand why it existed.  Thinking about it, even Metal Sonic had a tail, though it was much smaller.  It was designed like a hedgehog tail.  Why did his own look more like a dog’s?

He shook his head of the thought before long.  Itara, and her various designs and visual decisions, would always be a mystery to him.  Perhaps it was best left as it was.

Getting as dry as he could, and giving his tail a quick shake to dry and fluff back out, he changed pants, wrapped the towel around his neck in case he still needed it, and headed down to the lab.  He needed to look in on Itara now.  He would throw his shirt and jacket and pants in with the next load of laundry to clean and dry them, as well.

“Itara, are you doing your homework down there?” he called from halfway down the stairs, hearing the clicking of the keyboard.  He still got no response, though, and narrowed an eye in suspicion.  When he reached the bottom, he looked out over the lab and, just as expected, saw Itara sitting with her back to him working on the computer.  One screen open was, at least, the homework she was supposed to be doing, but another screen displayed a chat log.  It was a short conversation between her and Metal Sonic, who was sitting off to the side, staring at a far wall with an irritated glare.  Kipper was sitting on the desk, propped against the screen, back in doll mode.

“Don’t ignore me, little girl,” he commanded once he reached her, tapping her head to get her attention, grabbing Metal’s as well.  When she only gave a huff as a response, he looked up to the chat window to see if he could find the source of everyone’s apparent irritation.

_Don’t talk to me._

**_Fine.  I’ll type to you then._ **

_Don’t do that, either!  Go away!_

**_You’re the one who came down here._ **

_I have homework to do!  Shut up!_

**_Why must you do it here?_ **

There was no response after that.  He looked down at Itara with an eyebrow rose, realized he wasn’t going to get a response and looked to Metal, who had been watching him curiously.  When RK looked his way, however, he returned his gaze to the wall in front of him.

“I leave you two alone for a couple hours and you’re already fighting?”

“He started it!” Itara yelled, finally breaking her silence, but keeping her glare on the screen.

“I simply warned her that _I_ will be the one to finally kill Sonic,” Metal responded casually, turning just enough to side-eye the angry little girl.  “Apparently it struck a nerve.  Also, she apparently doesn’t know how to make hot chocolate.”

“I-!”  Itara’s cheeks puffed out, glaring at the bot, but turning right back to the screen.  She didn’t want to argue that because it would more than likely get her into trouble.

RK let out an audible sigh, reaching up to rub his forehead, “of course it struck a nerve, it’s best not to bring that timeline up with her.  More importantly, Itara, were you on the counters again?”

“N… no?”  Her response was far less angry this time around.

“Do you not remember the last time you were climbing on the counter?  And fell?  On your arm?”

Itara swung around in the seat and glared up at him, getting a raised eyebrow in response, “that wasn’t my fault!  Kipper scared me!”

“You shouldn’t have been up there in the first place.  Besides, what makes you think he won’t do it again?”

“I…,” her cheeks puffed again as she stared down at her lap, huffing after a moment and turning back around to face the screen.  She mumbled something incoherent under her breath and brought the screen with her homework back up to get back to work.  Correctly assuming that if she were working on her homework the subject would be dropped.

Rolling an eye, RK turned towards Metal again, catching him quickly looking away again.  “On the other hand, don’t bring that up around Itara.  As much as she refuses to admit it, Mephiles was equally willing to kill her to get to Sonic, of course it would be a touchy subject.  Something _you_ kept me from preventing.  So I’m not overly fond of the memory, myself.”  He narrowed an eye dangerously to get his point across, to which Metal Sonic only scoffed and waved a dismissive hand to the topic.

“As if I care.  Since that memory is corrupted I can’t even recall _why_ we had that fight, I only have what you can tell me.  I don’t even know if I fully trust these memories you’ve given me, for that matter.  According to your data, even your own data was corrupted and filled in by the little anomaly.  All of it could easily be a lie.”  He turned to glare directly at RK, meeting the warbot’s glare in threat, “given even filled in files I have on Mephiles, and the origins of her creation, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that she isn’t manipulating you for some grand scheme.  I’ll take no chances with her or you until I’m sure of where your loyalties lay, Metal Knuckles.”

Itara’s typing had stopped midway through his assertion, looking cautiously over her shoulder and watching him while RK only stood in silence.  Picking up on the tension in the air, Kipper activated again and grinned wildly at the two robots, obviously waiting for a fight to break out.  Metal Sonic never took his eye off RK, hammering in his point, though the larger red robot only sighed.

“Scheming as Mephiles was, Itara’s sometimes too easy to figure out.  She isn’t planning anything, Metal,” he explained, getting a glare from both of them, and a pout from a disappointed doll when no fight started.  Turning towards the little girl again, he explained, “In other news, we’ve been invited to a New Year’s party over at Lynda’s.  I think we should go.  I can explain my reasons later, but for now, finish your homework.  I need to start a load of laundry, my clothes got soaked working outside.  I’m also going to need to look into how these parties normally work.”

“Wait, what?!  No!  RK!” Itara yelled, reaching out when he started walking off, “I don’t wanna go!”

“I don’t care.  Finish your homework.”

“RK!”  When she got no further answer, she huffed loudly and dramatically, glaring across the room at the wall.  She turned towards a confused Metal Sonic, still angry with him, and stuck her tongue out.  “I’m not easy to figure out!  But I’m not scheming, either.  Not that I care if you trust me or not.”  She turned back towards the screen with another huff and went back to her work, noticing Kipper awake and pouting and questioned him about it.  He only moped for a moment and went back into doll mode.  If there was no fight happening, he wasn’t interested.  Though, maybe he could start something later.

Metal Sonic, on the other hand, was left baffled by RK’s response.  He expected him to either realize the fault in the situation and show further caution with the anomaly or even get defensive.  Instead, he practically blew him off!  Just how brainwashed _was_ he by the little schemer?  Did she actually install a loyalty chip without mentioning it?  Glaring back at the tiny hedgehog in the chair, he knew he couldn’t drop his guard around her.  He had no intention to originally, but clearly she was cleverer than even RK was giving her credit for.  He would need to be careful.


	8. New Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RK and Itara attend Lynda's New Year's party... shenanigans ensues.

“But RK, why?”

The tall red robot towered over the tiny hedgehog staring up at him with the most pathetic, pleading expression he’d ever seen her make.  She sat on the edge of her bed, her ears flattened against her quills, her bottom lip poking out, trying to get as much sympathy as she could from the un-budging robot.  She was dressed in a shorter, A-line-style blue dress that came up to a little below her knees, a thick blue sash wrapped around the waist and tied up in a large bow off to the side.  The sleeves were long and fitted with a small pouf at the shoulders and the skirt of the dress, in contrast to the dark blue of the top, was a thick cotton with a light blue gingham style pattern.  Two large, shimmering, dark blue ribbons tied her quills up into pigtails.

She wasn’t the only one dressed better than usual, either, as RK had managed to find a pair of black dress pants he’d fixed up to fit him as well as a loose-fitting, sleeveless burgundy turtleneck.  Though because his shirt was sleeveless, he’d also found a black and grey trench coat to wear over it and had removed his hook for the time being.

“Because, from what I read online, it seems these kinds of parties are normally more formal than casual.  This was the best I could find on such short notice,” he explained, reaching over to put the little girl back on the floor, checking her ribbons before standing back up straight, “It’s just until midnight, and it’d be rude to not go at all.”

“I fail to see the problem with that,” Itara glared back up at him, crossing her arms.

“No you don’t.”  He turned around and left the bedroom, Itara huffing and mumbling behind him as she followed him out to the living.  There was a TV and stand set up in front of the window now, as well as a somewhat newer reclining chair next to the couch, where a bored Metal Sonic was sitting, staring at the blank screen.  “Okay, we’re leaving now,” RK stated, getting little more than a side-eyed glance from the other bot, “as I explained before, we’ll be at the house three doors down on the other side of the street and we’ll be back after midnight.  Don’t cause any trouble while we’re gone.  And if Kipper decides to activate while we’re gone, don’t listen to anything he says.  He likes to cause trouble.”

Metal scoffed and looked away towards the window, “What trouble could I possibly cause in the state I’m in?”

“That’s a longer list than I care to go through at the moment,” RK responded, getting Itara wrapped up in her jacket before picking her up and getting her situated on his back.  “See you in a few hours, then.”  With another scoff from the annoyed robot, they were out the door and headed down the street to the party.  RK had to take special caution to keep his pants, which were normally tucked into the top of his boots, from dragging through the slush and end up soaked through before they got down the street.  Not only did he not want to track the snow into Lynda’s house more than his shoes already would, but he didn’t want to deal with wet pants at someone else’s house.  He had at least waited until nearly eight before heading over, purposely avoiding the dinner so he wouldn’t have to explain why he couldn’t eat or drink anything.  He still wasn’t upgraded enough for that.  Plus, the less time spent around Lynda, the better.  He had no idea what the rest of the neighbors would even be like, now that he was thinking about it.

It was a short walk to the right house.  Both outdoor and indoor lights lit the snow all the way to the sidewalk while the murmur of music and talking filled the air around it.  A line of multicolored lights still hung around the roof edges and the vague shape of some yard ornament poked out of a snow mound at the end of the driveway.  Three cars were parked between the driveway and sidewalk, though only one RK recognized as being Lynda’s, suggesting at least two people had driven from elsewhere to attend the party.  The driveway and porch was cleared of snow but a thin layer of slush, packed down by several pairs of feet, still covered the outer edges of the sidewalk, much like the rest of the neighborhood.  Their own house was the strangest in that regard, since they had no car there was little keeping the snow off their driveway and RK only cleared out a path to and from the street, rather than clearing the entire width.

Itara sighed and leaned forward against his head as they approached the house, grunting in slight annoyance when he reached up to pull her down and set her back on her feet in front of the door.  “Watch your temper, alright?” he warned, eyeing her, though she only crossed her arms and looked away.  Shaking his head, he looked up and reached over to ring the doorbell, though before he could press it down, the door swung open, revealing a widely grinning, luxuriously dressed Lynda.

“RK!  Itara!  Welcome to the party!”  She had always looked decent whenever she visited them, even wrapped up in thick coats and long pants, her hair was always lightly curled and her makeup was always done up, so he was used to her looking considerably better than most.  Today, however, for the sake of the party, she had gone to even further measures.  Though, admittedly, they only ever saw her wrapped up in large coats, today she wore a fitted, long-sleeved red dress that went just above her knees with a layered, ornate, silver necklace.  Her long, strawberry blonde hair was elegantly curled and carefully positioned around her head for the most volume.  Her makeup was noticeably more dramatic, with a smoky eyeshadow and bright red lipstick to match her dress.  Even her nails were newly and carefully painted with two silver bracelets on one wrist, matching her necklace.

“Hello Lynda, sorry we’re here so late.  We had some work to finish up before we could head over,” RK explained.  It was partially true, he was working on Metal Sonic again while Itara finished her homework up.

“No worries, no worries, like I said before, everyone tends to come at different times.  Come on in, it must be freezing out there!” Lynda exclaimed, ushering them in, “let me hang your coats up for you.  You look incredible, by the way.”

“Thank you.”  RK hesitated for a moment, having planned to leave his coat on because of the sleeveless state of his shirt, but didn’t want to look strange if it was common to remove your jacket while inside.  Itara shook her jacket right off, looking away towards the living room full of people.  He glanced towards her to check that she wasn’t glaring at everyone before pulling his own jacket off, catching that strange look from Lynda again once he did.  One of these days, he would figure out what exactly that look meant.  But for the time being, he just watched as she hung their jackets up in a nearby closet before leading them further into the house.

“Just about everyone is here already, you remember Aiko and Juri from before,” Lynda continued, motioning towards the two that had accompanied her down to their house before.  They were standing near a snack table, talking with another couple but waved when they caught sight of them.  RK gave an awkward wave back.  He wasn’t sure about them just yet, they seemed to follow Lynda around fairly often, yet they rarely talked.  “Over there with is Susan and her husband, Lawrence.  They live at the end of the street, on the other side of the crossroad.  Susan and Lawrence have a daughter in the same school as Itara and my son.  Susan and I are both part of the PTA and Lawrence heads a neighborhood watch program around here.  Then you’ve got Kimmie, Evan, Jack,” she continued showing them around the living room and kitchen, introducing them to everyone present.  Most were parents from the neighborhood.  There were only the two that went to Itara’s school while the rest of them either went to the public school, were homeschooled, or were in college elsewhere.

There were one or two couples that didn’t have children and there was one elderly couple whose children were all grown and off on their own.  The two that had been far enough to drive were childhood friends of Lynda’s that had come from out of town.  Lynda’s son and Susan’s daughter were in a room away from everyone else playing some game of some kind; they were the only kids close to Itara’s ‘age’.  “You haven’t met my son yet, have you?” Lynda asked, finally finding her hideaway son, “Simon, pause that game and come say hello.  Have you met Itara?  She goes to your school.”

The young brunette gave a quick roll of his eyes before pausing the game and looking over, studying the three standing in his bedroom door.  Itara had been half standing behind RK, mostly ignoring everyone, but looked over curiously at the mention of a fellow classmate.  Sure enough, she recognized him from around the school, but he was a grade above her.  She’d never spoken to him.  The school had both mobians and humans, but it wasn’t exactly an even split.  There were considerably more humans.  Most mobians went to the public school, she’d learned.  If they went at all.  Mobians had much different ways of life than humans, school and work and such systems didn’t much appeal to most mobians, but those were the ones who usually lived as far away from the cities as possible.  Mobians like Sonic, for example.

She and RK were the only mobians at the party, as well.

“Oh,” he frowned, looking back at the screen, “yeah, I’ve seen her… I guess.”

Susan’s daughter, a taller, thinner, black-haired girl, looked over as well, studying them with a cautious eye.  She said nothing, but turned back towards the game after a moment.  Itara recognized her, as well.  She was friends with Sceira, the pincer-haired pseudo-scorpion she distinctly loathed.  She’d said all of maybe a sentence to her since being enrolled but there was something about the blind mobian she just didn’t like, didn’t trust.  The same went for her friend group.

“Jeez, you kids and your video games,” Lynda sighed, turning back towards the two, “he’s not the most social of kids, but hopefully you two can get to know each other before long.  Simon, why don’t you let Itara play with you two?  You have another controller, don’t you?”

“Mom, this is a two-player game,” he sighed.

“Well then let her have a turn!”

“It’s f-fine,” Itara interrupted, “I don’t really… play games.”  Actually, she was curious about them, but she didn’t want to be left alone with the human children at the moment.  She hadn’t liked the look the other girl gave her.  She would be staying by RK’s side until they left.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Lynda frowned, “I’m sure they’ll be in there for a while so if you change your mind later just go ahead and join them.  For now let’s get back out to the others.  Are you hungry or anything?  There are leftovers from dinner and I have plenty of snacks.  I’ve got plenty of drinks, as well.  Go ahead and make yourselves at home and don’t be afraid to ask for anything.”  She led them back to the kitchen, “did you eat dinner before coming over?”

“Yes, we did,” RK answered, while Itara scanned what she could see sitting out on the table.

“D-Do you… have any cookies?”

“Of course!” Lynda led Itara to the snack table set out in the living room, pointing to the trays as she explained, “there are chocolate chips, peanut butter, oatmeal; the chocolate chips are vegan, too.  Do you have allergies?”

Allergies?  Allergies.  She looked up at RK in confusion, not even sure what constituted an ‘allergy’ to begin with.  He shook his head and explained for her, “No, she doesn’t.  None that I’ve found yet, anyway.”  Initially he would have doubted a part of a God could even _have_ allergies, but he also didn’t think she could get sick before a couple weeks ago, either, so he was no longer sure of this.

“That’s good, then.  What kind would you like, then, little one?”

“Uh, chocolate,” Itara answered, looking between them and then back at the table, curious what else could be up there.  She could barely even see over the edge.  Stupid humans and their tallness!  She wanted back on RK’s shoulders.  Would it be weird to ask to be picked back up?  She wasn’t sure.  Lynda put a couple cookies on a small paper plate and handed them to her, smiling and patting her head between her ears, turning back to RK to continue talking to him.

“Can I get you anything?  A drink, perhaps?  We’ve got the _adult_ drinks cooling in the garage.”

“Ah, no, that’s alright.  I’m fine,” he explained, looking away, wondering what exactly an ‘adult’ drink was and pulled up a side window to look into it.

“Well, as I said before, just let me know.  For now, come!  Get to know everyone!”  She reached over and grabbed his wrist, staring at the long, metallic claws protruding from the one hand for a moment before pulling him towards the group of four standing at the end of the table.  “Susan, Lawrence, have you had a chance to meet RK here yet?  His niece goes to the same school as our kids.”  RK jolted from the movement, but reluctantly followed, having finally discerned that ‘adult’ drinks usually referred to alcoholic beverages and focused in on the conversation again.  He was a bit taken aback when Lynda referred to Itara as his ‘niece’ this time, though.

Itara blinked for a moment, having briefly forgotten she had told Lynda that RK was her uncle, but looked away again, not wanting to get caught up in whatever conversation was about to happen.  She was more interested in the cookies, anyway.  What was ‘vegan’?  Taking a cautious bite, her face scrunched when the taste was… off.  She couldn’t figure out what exactly it was that tasted different right away, but it wasn’t what she was expecting.  It was still chocolate, at least, but she decided she much preferred a normal chocolate cookie over whatever ‘vegan’ meant now.  What other kinds of snacks did they have?

After a thorough search of the snack table, and a brief eavesdrop on RK’s conversation, deciding she wanted nothing to do with any of it, she decided to wander the house a little.  She didn’t necessarily want to stray far from RK, since human adults were even taller than the unnaturally tall robots she was used to being around, but she hadn’t found anything on the tables within reach that looked worth the effort.  The living room and kitchen entrance was full of loud, chatting humans, all dressed up, many of them glancing towards her and RK in the middle of their conversations, causing her to subconsciously wander towards the emptier hallway.

It was darker down there and the only time anyone passed through was when they were headed to the bathroom, so Itara found solace in the quiet corners of the house.  Most the bedroom doors were closed and she didn’t want to get in trouble for wandering too much, so instead she found the furthest corner to crouch down in and go into thought.  The dark, colder, isolation was far more comforting than the lively main rooms.  It reminded her of the abandoned lab she stayed in with her dad in the first timeline, the corner giving a similar comfort to her makeshift bed under the computer room’s console.

Her comfort was soon interrupted, however, when Simon came out of his bedroom, having been heading across the hall to the bathroom but jumped when he caught sight of Itara.  “What are you doing?!” he shrieked, looking back and forth between his bedroom door and the hallway.

Itara’s ears flattened against her head at the loud noise, frowning, her bright green and purple eyes nearly glowing in the dark corner.  “I… I was… n-nothing!” she stammered, not even sure how to explain it, “I was just… comfy…”  She looked off to the side as the other human girl came out from the bedroom to find out what was going on, raising an eyebrow at the hedgehog practically curled into a ball.

“What kind of freak are you?” she sneered, eyeing Itara with suspicion, receiving a glare in return.  Itara huffed in annoyance, but glared off to the side again, ignoring both of them.  She didn’t know how to respond without either sounding silly or accidentally saying something she shouldn’t, so she opted for silence, instead.  The other girl scoffed when she got no response, turning back around to return to the room while Simon looked between them both.

“Come on, Cam, that was a little mean.”

“I don’t care, there’s something _wrong_ with her, even amongst her own kind.  Hurry and get back so we can finish our game.”

Simon sighed, looking back at Itara again, who was still ignoring them, continuing to the bathroom.  Once he was gone again, Itara’s shoulders dropped ever so slightly, her glare lowering with it, as she pulled her knees closer against her chest.  Sceira was the one to blame for this, she knew it.  She didn’t want to associate with any of them, anyway.  She just wished she had brought Kipper with her.  Then again, they might have made fun of her for carrying a doll around, too.  It wouldn’t have been the first time.  Huffing angrily, she pushed herself back up and headed down the hall again, intending to tell RK she wanted to go home.  She no longer cared if it was rude to leave before whatever event was planned, she no longer wanted to be there.

“So, of course, Camilla won first place, as if the other kids even had a chance,” Susan was explaining, getting a slight scowl from the hedgehog that had just walked into the conversation.  “What about your, what was she again, _niece_ , RK?  What kind of after school activities does she take part in?  Where did you say her parents were, again?”

“Ah, well,” RK began, crossing his arms, “none, at the moment.”  He hadn’t even considered after school activities before.  Was that something he should look into?  Then again, Itara hated going to school plenty as it was; he doubted she would want to be there any longer than she already was.  But then again, maybe if she found something fun to do it might change her mind.  “But her parents are…”

“Travelling,” Itara interrupted, making her presence known and glaring up at the nosy woman, apparently Camilla’s mother.  “My dad t-travels a lot.”

“And what of your mom?”

Itara frowned, looking away.  She didn’t have anything in the way of a mom.  She could suggest her mother had died, but that brought her thoughts to Mira and Kelly… and she refused to let them back into her head.  Luckily, the awkward silence forced a change of subject and Lynda brought the attention to her, “you know, Susan, I heard Camilla only placed first in the finals because the other girl dropped out at the last minute.”

“What are you insinuating, Lynda?” Susan snapped, turning her sharp gaze from the two mobians over to the other woman, who only smiled sweetly and put her hands up in defense, holding a glass of red wine in one of them.

“Nothing at all, Hun, just a rumor I heard is all.”

A deadly silence drifted between the group as Susan and Lynda seemed to mentally square off.  RK and Itara exchanged glances, though not before catching a slight roll of eyes from the ever-silent Aiko and an uncomfortable shift from Juri and Lawrence.  If RK had to guess, from the various reactions, this was not a new situation between the two, making him curious what sort of past they had.  Yet, at the same time, it was not something he wanted to delve into.  He was getting some high tension readings that he would prefer to avoid.

Lynda was the first to move, smiling sweetly over at the other woman and taking another drink of her wine, waving the mood off while turning back to RK, “you’ve kept relatively quiet so far.  You should tell us more about yourself.  Where are you from?  What do you do?  How did you come to take care of the little one?”

RK shifted, looking off in another direction as he debated the answer.  There was a lot there he couldn’t actually tell them.  He had hoped just letting them talk and maybe even keeping the topic on Itara would suffice.  He couldn’t tell them much about himself without giving away his identity.  “Ah, well, you can probably imagine I’m not from around here, per se.  We moved here because I had… an acquaintance… that used to own the house that no longer had need for it and we were looking to move.  As for what I do, I work… security….  I suppose you’d call it contract work, as it’s rarely for the same place.”

“Oh?” Lynda not so subtly moved closer, giving him a light nudge with her shoulder, winking, “well, with all that strength I’ve seen so far, it must suit you.  Roughing up troublemakers and all.”

RK watched her curiously while Susan dramatically rolled her eyes and loudly scoffed, crossing her arms and getting a playful scowl from the strawberry blond.  “Yes, I suppose,” he hesitated, “and as Itara explained, her… _father_ … travels fairly often and didn’t want to move her around so much, so he asked me to take care of her until he returned.”

“Excuse me if I’m being nosy,” Susan began, though didn’t sound all that apologetic about it, “but I can’t help but notice you and Itara don’t look… much alike.  Is that common for mobians?”

“Now that you mention it,” Lynda paused, looking between the two, “you are a bit different.  How does that work if two mobians are different… breeds?”  RK looked off, going through a number of possible explanations, exchanging glances with Itara, who was more visually panicked about the question than him.  Before he could come up with a fitting answer, however, Lynda luckily decided she apparently no longer cared and leaned against him ever so slightly, grinning, “Actually, I’m more curious how similar mobian and human anatomy might be.”  Susan, once again, audibly scoffed while Itara’s eyebrow went up, wondering why that would be important.

RK, however, just welcomed the change of subject and started explaining the various ways mobians and humans differed, as far as his data supplied, anyway.  He didn’t have extensive information on the subject, but he could at least explain basics.  Though, Lynda seemed less interested in the actual answer, despite having been the one to ask, and more interested in leaning further against him.  Was she perhaps getting tired?  It was considerably late for most organics, save for the more nocturnal mobians, that was.  “Would you like to sit down?”

“Only if it’s in your lap-”

“You’re drunk already, aren’t you?” Susan scolded, though there was a hint of vindictive amusement in her tone.  RK, however, was only further confused and doing his best to step further away from the human woman, without letting her fall over.  Something told him he should keep his distance, especially once Lynda started waving at Susan to hush with the hand holding her half-empty glass.

Itara’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, wondering what was even going on.  She still wanted to go home.  Before she could inform RK of this, however, the front door rather suddenly swung open and a worryingly familiar voice called out for him, instead.  Both she and RK, along with everyone else at the party, swung around towards the door in either shock or confusion, or panic in her and RK’s case.  Standing in the door, glaring over towards them with a noticeable amount of disdain, was Metal Sonic, wrapped up in one of the longer coats RK had hung in the hallway closet.  He had to pull it much tighter than RK normally did, as he had a much thinner frame, but at the very least, the coat and high-necked sweater underneath covered the majority of his broken, robotic parts.

“Me-!” RK began, though cut himself off, Itara taking over for him.

“Sparky!  Wh-what are you doing here?!”

The other bot narrowed an eye, but walked in towards them, seeming to all but ignore everyone else, “I grew tired of waiting and RK’s communications are offline.”  He briefly studied the room before his one red eye fell on the woman RK was propping up, who only stared over in confusion.  “And I did not give you permission to call me that.”

“Who is that?” Lynda questioned, attempting to stand up again, though wobbled as soon as she did, looking to Itara first, “a friend of yours?”

Itara resisted the urge to scoff, “n-not… exactly.”

“He’s my… partner,” RK explained, sending the room, including Lynda, into a shocked silence.  She had asked him about a partner once before so it was the first, and most viable, explanation he came up with on the spot.  Susan narrowed her eyes but Lynda looked between the two while Metal Sonic only raised an eyebrow.

“We haven’t-”

“We’ve worked together for a long time,” RK continued, moving over between him and Lynda, mostly to keep him from saying anything unnecessary.

“Oh, a _work_ partner, of course,” Lynda laughed, relieved about something RK couldn’t comprehend.  “Well, it’s nice to meet a colleague of RK’s, then.  Why don’t you join us?  We’ve still got a couple hours until midnight, after all.”

“I have no interest in joining your human festivities, I am only here to retrieve RK,” Metal Sonic stated coldly, turning to the larger red robot, “why are your communications offline?”

“Be _cause_ ,” RK growled, grabbing the other bot by the shoulders and shoving him off towards the hallway to talk, leaving Itara to stare after them, blinking, unsure how to handle the situation.  Once the two bots disappeared into the hallway, a number of eyes fell on her, making her want to retreat back to the dark corner again, and averted her gaze as best she could.  She didn’t manage long before Lynda specifically put herself into her line of sight, crouching down to talk quietly with the hedgehog.

“So, who’s this colleague of your uncle’s, then?  Is he staying with you or something?”

Itara frowned and considered the question and possible answers, wondering what would be the best response.  “Uh… y-yeah… he’s… staying with us,” she stammered, looking away, “he, uh, he was pretty badly injured recently… so, RK said he should stay with us… so we can… help him out.”  That was _one_ way to explain it, she supposed.  More importantly, though, she would have to have a word with Kipper for not doing his job and keeping the other bot home.  Then again, Kipper was more likely to goad him into showing up, rather than keeping him home, just to watch what kind of reaction it got.

“Oh, how caring,” Lynda beamed, clasping her hands together, “he’s strong, caring, _and_ good with kids?  And here I thought all you mobians just liked running around causing a ruckus.”

Itara’s eyebrow rose, watching the human woman with suspicion and taking an unconscious step back.  What was _that_ supposed to mean?  The humans were just as troublesome as any of the mobians.  In fact, save for maybe Shadow, they were debatably worse.  Not to mention Robotnik.

“Though, it sounds like he isn’t so fond of humans.”  Itara stiffened, concerned Lynda might have caught on to something.  “Does he normally live with other mobians?”

“Uh,” she looked between the hallway and Lynda, “actually… he just used to live with an especially irritating human.  Soured his image of you guys a bit.”  Not that she thought any better of them.

“Oh, I see,” Lynda gave it some thought, looking towards the two quietly arguing robots in the hallway, before grinning, “well, I guess any friend of RK’s is a friend of ours.  I hope he enjoys his visit, however long it ends up being.”

Eyeing the woman suspiciously, Itara turned around and followed after RK and Metal Sonic, listening to their ‘argument’ about interrupting parties.  Figuring they were likely having the real conversation via communication lines, and weren’t paying attention to her presence, she walked up and pulled on both RK’s pant leg as well as Metal’s coat, exclaiming, “I want to go home.  I no longer care that it’s early, I want nothing more to do with this party.”  Both bots looked down at her, Metal Sonic glaring slightly while RK’s mouth pierced into a solid line.  Perhaps it was best to head back home, after all.


	9. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word spreads fast after the New Years party at Itara's school, but she's more interested in the attacks at the shrine still. She decides to take the train into the city and look into it more... but there's always trouble.

“I heard she likes sitting off in dark corners just waiting to scare people.”

“What?  That’s creepy.”

Itara shot a spiteful glare over her shoulder, catching the attention of her two barely-whispering classmates, watching their faces flush at the realization that she heard them.  They turned back around, whispering much quieter, and Itara continued on through the cafeteria, grumbling angrily under her breath as she headed for the empty staircase again.  Kipper wasn’t with her today, though, so she would be eating entirely by herself.

Word had spread annoyingly fast around her school after the New Year’s party, even though only two actual classmates were even there.  It wasn’t the worst rumor, having everyone think she was creepy and that she liked to scare people.  It wasn’t the first time people thought she was creepy and if anything it kept them further away from her, which she preferred.  Though, if anything, she actually wanted them all _destroyed_ rather than just scared.  So no, it wasn’t the rumor, itself, that bothered her so much… it was the fact that Camilla had been the one to spread it.  No doubt it made its way to Sceira, as well, and the last thing she wanted was to give Sceira any kind of material to further mock her with.

Huffing, she dropped down on the bottom two stairs and set her lunch in her lap, glaring at the wall as she picked at her food.  Maybe she’d get lucky and the school would be attacked again.  Maybe it’d even be destroyed completely and she’d never have to come again.  As if she’d ever been so lucky.

With a sigh, she set her food aside and pulled the worn black notebook out of her backpack, flipping through the pages filled with scribbles and notes and sketches, scanning over them to make sure there was nothing new.  The last entry was the previous night’s.  Nothing from today.  Nothing from the future.  Still.  Nevertheless, she closed her eyes and tried searching out for the timelines, or even just the shadows, to see if she could feel them at all yet.  She tried opening a portal, summoning a monster—since they’d been appearing again, after all—or manipulating the shadows.  But there was still nothing.  Like reaching out into a void.  Nothing answered back.

Opening her eyes again, she stared out at the wall in front of her, leaning forwards on her knees and sighing.  “I know they’re still there… so why can’t I access them?”

“Access what?”

She nearly shrieked at the sudden voice, whirling around and scowling at the grey-eyed mobian standing at the staircase entrance.  “N-None of your business!” she hissed, shoving her notebook back into her backpack and grabbing her lunch, jumping to her feet, “if you’ve come to mock me, save your breath!  I’ve heard it all already.”

“I’m not even here for you, Itara,” Sceira scoffed, “I was just passing by and heard you _talking to yourself_ again.”

As her face flushed up, she was briefly grateful that the pseudo-scorpion couldn’t see, glaring off to the side, “I was just th-thinking out loud.  L-Leave me alone.”

“I don’t know what you’re always up to, Itara, skulking about and mumbling to yourself all the time, but I hope you know it won’t fly,” the other girl warned, narrowing pale eyes in the hedgehog’s general direction, “we don’t need any troublemakers here.”

Itara studied her carefully, narrowing her own eyes, but scoffing and looking away again, “what I do is no concern of yours.  Or anyone’s, for that matter.”  Wanting to get away before she said anything more, always on the verge of threatening people with the full extent of what used to be her power, she shoved her way past Sceira and into the hallway, “I suggest you keep your nose where it belongs, _Sceira_.”  She heard nothing more from the other mobian as she continued down the hall, heading outside, instead, since her stairway spot had been impeded on.  She would need to find a new hiding spot.  Somewhere _further_ from everyone.

Maybe she could go back up to the roof during lunch.

* * *

 

Checking her phone one last time, she looked at the time and up at the train station signs.  She was finally out of the Hellscape called School, but she didn’t entirely feel like going back home just yet.  There were things she’d wanted to look into since the incident on the roof, but RK kept refusing to take her into town to look into the shrine, finding new reasons every time she asked.  Well, just because she _looked_ like a child, didn’t mean she actually was one.  If she had to ride the train home on her own, anyway, and since it went through the city, she could just go herself.  She didn't necessarily need someone with her to visit her father’s shrine in Soleanna, but she would have felt better going with RK.

She did text him and let him know she was going, just in case.  Her main solace was that no one else remembered the previous timelines.  If not even Shadow recognized her, no one else should, either, even if she ran into someone, they wouldn’t know her.  It would be fine, as long as she got off at the right stop on the train ride over.  She’d never taken a train before recently and, while she knew how to get to school and home, she wasn’t sure where the rest of the stops led.  Surely the heart of Soleanna would be easy to pinpoint, though.

Once the train pulled up and she found a spot closest to the large map of railways and stops, she pulled her notebook out and drew it out for herself on an empty page.  She always had a good half hour or so between stops so she figured she would have plenty of time to draw out what she would need.  She made note of everything the speaker said at each stop, scribbling as many notes as she could, tracking what went where.  When the train grew more packed, she figured she was likely close to where she needed to be but still wasn’t sure which stop was the correct one.  And she refused to ask the mortals.

When the speaker mentioned a ‘Soleanna Station’, it jolted her out of her thoughts just in time for the train to start slowing.  Keeping her notebook out, just in case she needed to draw more maps and directions, she pulled her backpack back on and wiggled her way through legs and taller mobians to reach the door.  She barely tripped her way out onto the cement platform before the doors closed again.  Huffing, she straightened herself back out, looked around to make sure no one was mocking her, and turned to find another map.  Luckily she knew the actual streets of Soleanna well enough that once she determined where she was, she could find her way.

Checking her phone again to see if RK had responded yet, she tucked it away when there were no messages and continued her search for a map.  Why did humans have to be so tall, though?!  As if it wasn’t bad enough that she was small even for a mobian, the humans were so much taller, and so tightly packed into the station, it was all she could do to stay on her feet, let alone find what she was looking for.  Stumbling, and half-shoving, through the crowds, she found a far wall and decided the streets were an easier option.  She could find her way from there.

“Excuse me, are you lost, little one?”

Itara’s ears flattened at the childlike tone, resisting the urge to growl, and looked up at the _annoyingly tall_ human towering over her.  He looked as though he worked in the station and, to anyone else, had a friendly enough face, only wanting to make sure a small child didn’t get separated from their parent.  But to Itara he was a nosy human mocking her for being small and insinuating that she couldn’t find her way on her own.

“I’m fine,” she explained, with barely disguised irritation, causing the man to jerk back in surprise.

“Right, of course.  You just looked a little lost; did you get separated from someone?  It’s easy to lose people around here but I can help you find them.”

Sighing, Itara waved him off, “I d-didn’t lose anyone.  I’m by myself and I know perfectly well where I’m going, thank you.  Everyone is just too tall and in my way.”

“Oh, I see, okay then.  Well, there’s always someone in those little buildings there if you ever need anything, alright?”

She glanced over at the small, four-walled room set up on the edges around the platform.  They had one door and three of the four walls had large windows in them to see the person inside.  The one the man was pointing to was empty, suggesting he was normally there.  Looking back up at him, she nodded curtly and turned away again, “I’ll remember that.”  Not that she would ever need help from anyone, anyway… except maybe RK.  And Kipper… once in a while.  But they were the exceptions.  Turning towards the stairs leading up to the streets, she continued her way out.  Despite what she told the man, she was still lost, but knew she’d find her place once she was back in the open air.  She’d travelled all across this city, multiple times, in multiple timelines, both intact and destroyed.  She didn’t need help finding the _center_.

Then again.

Now that she was thinking about it, she did usually have to use inactive time travel powers to get to places on time.  It wasn’t exactly _uncommon_ for her to get a _little_ lost and have to write out her own directions for her past self.  It was also a little easier to find the center of a city when it was completely flattened and she could see the center from several miles away.

Scratching her cheek, she gave a long look around, studying various signs and looking for familiar buildings, realizing more and more how little she actually paid attention to her physical surroundings.  Well.  Still, the center shouldn’t be that difficult to find!  She’d just walk towards the sun, surely that would lead her to the shrine.  Nodding with her decision, she set off; taking careful notes about everything she passed so just in _case_ she _happened_ to get lost, she would at least know where she’d already gone.

She followed the setting sun down the longest stretch of road she could find, passing a number of shops, diners, and tall buildings, some of which she recognized.  From the original timeline.  They were some of the few buildings to remain somewhat intact in what came to be known as Crisis City.  A shudder ran up her spine as she passed them, prompting her to pull her coat closer around her and briefly wonder why she had to wear a _skirt_ even in winter.  As much as she liked her loose-fitting clothing, even she thought the skirt uniform was a poor winter choice.

The longer she walked, the lower the sun got, and the colder it got; and yet, she was still no closer to finding the shrine than she started out.  Huffing out loud, she stopped to glare around, catching the attention of some passersby, but straightened back up when her phone went off.  Pulling it out of her coat pocket, she checked the text, which mostly boiled down to RK telling her to get home before it got dark, and huffed again.  She refused to go home until she accomplished what she came to do, and she told him as much before shoving the phone angrily back in her pocket.

Fine!  She would ask someone!  Her feet were starting to hurt and it was cold, she wanted to hurry up and find her dad’s shrine so she could _yell at him_ for making her suffer like this!  Looking around, she waltzed into the nearest shop, which happened to be a small restaurant, and walked angrily up to the counter where a yellow hedgehog stood, punching numbers into the register.

“I need to find Solaris’ Shrine!  T-Tell me how to get there!”

The hedgehog jolted at the rather sudden outburst, leaning over the counter to meet her eyes, staring curiously.  “Uh,” it took them a moment to register what she even asked before shaking their head, “oh, uh, sure.  It’s in Town Square just a mile or so that way,” they pointed down the street in the direction Itara had come from, causing her to grimace.  “If you follow the road this way and then take a right on main, it’ll take you right to it,” they continued, looking around before looking down at her again, “did you get separated from your parents?  Do you need me to call someone?”

Itara huffed.  Again with this.  “No.”  She turned towards the door, stopping after a moment and muttering a small, “thank you for the directions.”  Walking back out of the restaurant, she sighed loudly at having to go all the way back.  That’s what she got for following the sun, apparently.  How dare her father lead her astray like that?  Well, she could yell at him for that, too, once she reached the shrine.  She got another text from RK, but she was too angry to check it this time, and instead focused on hurrying back down the street… without tripping.  If she could run without tripping over her own feet, she would have, but the best she could do was walk quickly.  At least the city sidewalks weren’t covered in ice and snow like the sidewalks in the neighborhood.

By the time the shrine finally came into sight, the sun was nearly gone under the horizon and Itara was utterly freezing and tired and extremely cranky.  The lights around the square, shimmering off the fallen snow that coated various statues and buildings, along with the long stretch of orange and pink sky was a lovely sight, but Itara was far too irritated to look at it for long.  Once the shrine was within sight, she stormed right up to the water’s edge, glaring at the towering stone torch-like structure in the middle of the square.  The massive torch and surrounding buildings sat at the center of a great, deep pond, the sparkling orange sky dancing off the nearly black rippling waters.  A stone statue with great, widespread wings stood on a pedestal in front of the main structure, the bright red gem in its chest glinting in the torchlight.

Itara stared at the statue from the railing around the waterway, wishing she could get closer, wanting to make sure her father heard her, but knew the only way over to the small inlet directly in front of the statue was by boat.  And she still couldn’t float.  Sighing, she glared towards the setting sun, watching it fall behind the horizon, before directing her glare back to the stone statue.  The square was busy as always, despite the cold and the setting sun, but Itara had found a relatively empty area to study the shrine from.

“I hope you know… I’m mad at you,” she threw out, her glare firmly on the statue.  She could see the small chipped slashes where the monster had likely attacked before being run off even from her spot.  “I don’t know why you aren’t answering me… and I don’t know why I can’t access my powers, but I hope you at l-least know I’m mad at you.  B-But I also intend to… I’ll also look into the monsters that attacked.  As much as I can.  Without my powers, I-”  She stopped when a couple walked near her, keeping a sharp eye on them until they were gone again, then back towards the statue, “in either case, I hope you at least answer me soon.”  Staring down towards the water, she studied the sparkling lights, about to turn and leave when a much larger orange glow appeared in the water’s reflection near her.

Looking up again, she caught the brief sight of a glowing, burnt orange creature running away from the square and tilted her head curiously.  She had only seen it for a split second before it disappeared, but it almost looked like… one of Iblis’ Biters.  She knew that shape well enough, she’d recognize it anywhere, even at a glance.  First one of Gaia’s Nightmares, now a Biter?  What was going on?  She hesitated only a moment before jumping away from the railing to follow it towards the alley it had disappeared into.  Normally she would avoid Iblis’ creatures as much as possible, the Nightmare already tried attacking her, there was little reason a Biter wouldn’t, as well.  But on the off-chance that it was, in fact, some form of response from her father, since neither Iblis nor Mephiles technically existed anymore, she didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

She crossed the square to the alleyway, giving only a quick look around before walking down it.  It was an empty enough space, just a small road between buildings, no one was around.  The further down the alley she walked, the warmer it got, much to her utmost comfort.  The source of the heat walked out from around a far corner before long, revealing the—much smaller than she was used to—smoldering Biter.

She stopped, unsure whether or not it planned to attack, the creature doing the same as they stared one another down.  When it didn’t attack outright, she glanced around before reaching a hand cautiously towards it, “I-it’s okay… I won’t hurt you… you’re made by my dad, right?”  It was strangely comforting, seeing the creature again, as many terrifying memories as she had with them, it had been so long since she felt that familiar warmth.

But just as she thought the Biter might actually recognize her, or at least confirm it wasn’t a threat to her, it moved into a defensive pose and growled viciously, exposing it’s long, molten fangs, its tail whipping angrily behind it.  Panicking, she held her hands up in defense, taking a couple steps back, “n-no, d-don’t… i-it’s o-okay, d-don’t-!”  Her words went unheard, however, as the creature crouched, causing Itara to lock up in place.  She couldn’t even duck out of its way and, instead, felt her spines crystallize, worsening her panic.

As the Biter leapt, likely taking the altered form as a threat, Itara could only snap her eyes shut, her ears pinning back at the sound of the growl, screeching in horror when it knocked her over.  Its body was _heavy_ and pinning her down, the once comforting heat turning scalding to the touch as the molten fangs hovered dangerously over her.  Her hands burned as she tried pushing its massive jaws away, fiery claws stabbing into her sides, her own crystals stabbing uncomfortably into her back where she landed on them.

When she thought she couldn’t hold it any longer, however, as her arms were far from strong enough to really keep it at bay for any period of time, there was a sudden whirring through the air and the creature screeched in pain as it flew further down the alley.  A light _thud_ sounded beside her and it took her until someone pulled her back to her feet and talked to her before she focused enough to realize what had happened.  Wide, horrified purple eyes met shining, confident green ones as the taller blue hedgehog looked over her.

“…Alright, there?  Hey, it’s okay, it’s gone now,” he grinned, “but man, this place has been busy lately!  You should be careful from now on, there might be more of those things.”

“Y-You!”  Itara jerked back and away from the other hedgehog, pulling her hands back and nearly tripping over her feet. He jumped, reaching for her again before she fell back against the concrete.

“Well that’s a reaction I don’t normally get,” he laughed, making sure she would stay on her feet, seeming to not notice the utter panic his mere presence was causing.  “C’mon, why don’t I get ya home?  Those look like some bad burns, you should get them taken care of.”

Itara, however, only stared in wide-eyed horror, taking another unconscious step back.  Of all the mobians.  All the hedgehogs.  Why did it have to be _him_?  Sure, he obviously didn’t recognize her, just like Shadow didn’t, he wasn’t even saying anything about her crystals, but just being in such close proximity to Sonic, especially right after being attacked, was too much for her to process properly.  She had little control over herself as she stammered out the first response that came to mind.

“Why are you even alive?”

“What?”  He jerked at the response, having not expected it and crossed his arms in thought, raising an eyebrow, “that creature wasn’t _that_ difficult to beat.  I mean, I guess it looks pretty tough but it’s no big deal for me.”

Itara shook her head, taking a moment to calm herself and mentally sighed at his cluelessness.  Well, it benefitted her at the moment, but it did little to calm her irritation.  She thought she’d finally gotten her response from Solaris, seeing the Biter, but then it attacked her.  Now to see Sonic so closely again, considering the last time she saw him was no fond memory of hers, it was too much.  She closed her eyes tightly, trying to calm herself.  Sonic spoke up again, but she heard none of what he said.  Instead, only a dizzying wave of confusion came over her and a growl echoed through the alleyway.

Opening her eyes, her brows furrowed when, instead of Sonic, she saw the Biter again.  She had expected it to get back up, but not so soon and not in front of her.  It had been behind her a moment ago.  In addition, Sonic was gone.  She was facing down the alleyway the other direction again and the Biter had moved back into a pouncing position.  What happened?

She had little time to contemplate it as the creature pounced again.  This time, being more distracted by the repeat situation than the creature, itself, she dove out of the way with a small yelp.  The heat of the creature flew over her, but as she moved to get back to her feet and try to run, a crackling and sharp rush filled the air as the creature screeched and thudded against the ground.  Expecting Sonic again, Itara prepared herself to face him before pushing herself back to her feet, turning around and looking up… only to meet an entirely different set of eyes.

“Y-you-?!”  Déjà vu.  Shaking her head, she stared up at the half-robot, half-human looking man with the long, glowing blue sword in hand.  It was the same one from the incident in the shopping center.  He had been studying the now halved creature, but looked over to her when she spoke.

He studied her silently, then questioned, “are you unharmed?”

Itara looked down.  Her knees were scuffed from diving out of the way, but the burns and wounds from before were gone.  Looking up again, confused, she nodded slowly, “I’m… f-fine…”

“Very well, you should get home, then.  This place has grown dangerous.”

“Who… are you?”  He looked down at her again, the glowing blue sword retreating back into its handle as he turned to face her.  “I don’t… recognize your design, is all.”

“My design?”  It was his turn to raise a curious eyebrow, though it was a movement lost to his helmet.

“I mean,” Itara frowned, unsure how to ask without giving too much away, “you aren’t a creation of Robotnik, are you?”

“No.  I was-”

“Itara!”  Both Itara and the humanoid robot looked towards the alleyway entrance, Itara nearly jumping out of her skin, as RK appeared, eyeing the other bot cautiously.  There was a short silence before he continued, “I told you not to come out here, what are you doing?”  He glanced towards the halved creature, looking between the two, studying the alleyway, before resting his sights on the tiny hedgehog again.  He could guess what happened to a degree, but he would ask later, once they were home, “come on, it’s getting late.”

Itara frowned, looking between the two bots, curious about ponytail, but edged towards RK.  She gave one final glance back at the other bot with uncertainty, “th-thank you for… saving me.  What’s your name?”

He remained silent, studying the two, before looking away, “My name is Zero.  You should be more cautious in the future.”  With that, he continued down the alleyway while RK pulled Itara up onto his back.  Itara watched after him until RK left the alleyway and he was out of her sight, sighing afterwards and leaning against the big, fluffy robot.

“So what happened?”

“I’ll explain when we get home,” she sighed, closing her eyes, wrapping her arms tighter around his neck, “but I think I might have accessed a timeline.  I don’t know if I just saw an alternate possibility, or I actively went between the two.  But I saw two different outcomes.”

RK looked over his shoulder towards her, turning back after a moment, “In any case, answer your phone when I call you.  Just because you aren’t actually a child doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt, as you just saw.  Even when you had your powers you weren’t exactly untouchable.”

Itara sighed loudly and dramatically, “fine, fine.  But don’t think I’m done looking into what’s happening!”

“Of course you aren’t.”  Itara nodded with finality and the rest of the trip home was relatively silent.  Once they were out of the city limits, RK ran the rest of the way and once Itara was changed and warmed up—after a short bout with Metal Sonic regarding her need to be chased after—she explained the events of the day.  She started with all the annoyances during school, ensuring her hatred of the entire situation was known, and then continued on to her trip to the city.  She conveniently left out getting lost, though.

When she explained about the alternate situation Metal Sonic took sudden interest in the conversation and pressed for more information regarding her unusable powers.  Kipper, for once, remained silent and in doll mode throughout the evening.


	10. The Great Caper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RK sets out for a mission, leaving Metal Sonic to watch the house and Itara...
> 
> Mistakes are made.

RK pulled his jacket on, checking his communication settings once more to ensure they were completely offline—with a final reminder sent to Itara—as he headed down to the lab to talk with Metal Sonic.  He had his hook screwed back in and had sharpened his claws in preparation for the day’s plans, all that remained was to double check backup plans and systems.  As usual, Metal Sonic was set up in a chair beside one of the charging stations, hooked into both the station and the computer, backing up several files and logging a set of new ones RK had given him as a just-in-case.  The blue bot looked over once he approached, studying his oddly geared up companion with a suspicious gaze.

“Going somewhere?”

“Yes, there’s something that needs taking care of.”  Holding a small chip out to Metal, he explained, “I may be gone until at least tomorrow, which means I’m going to need you to take care of things here for me until I return.  My communication systems will be offline to prevent detection as much as possible but should anything go wrong, if I’m caught, I’ll reconnect long enough to send a message to this computer.  If it comes, I’ll need you to load this and set the destruct sequence off.  It’ll wipe my systems, hopefully before anything can be retrieved from them.”

Metal took the chip, tucking it away in a protected compartment but returned his gaze to RK with an eyebrow rose, “what exactly are you planning to do?”

RK shook his head, “if I say, you’ll follow me.  Especially if anything happens, I’d prefer you and Itara remain safe, which is why I’m giving you those codes.  Hopefully nothing happens, though, and I’ll be back within a day.  While I’m gone, though, I want you to keep an eye on Itara for me.  I know you don’t trust her, but… I’ll be able to focus better if I know someone’s taking care of her.”

The other bot scoffed, looking away, “you’ve grown far too attached to that thing, RK.”

“All the more reason I need to know she’ll be safe while I’m away.”

The room remained silent for several minutes, RK waiting for a response while Metal Sonic considered his demand.  Eventually Metal sighed in annoyance, waving him away, “fine, fine.  I’ll watch over your little anomaly.  But on one condition.”  He turned a piercing red eye to the other bot, “you tell me where you’re going.  Whether I follow you or not is my own concern, but don’t think I’m so stupid as to walk into a situation that managed to defeat you.”

RK gave it a moment of thought, but upon his explanation he received a furious glare from the other bot in response.  Metal did his best to convince him his goal was foolish, but RK only shook his head, double checked his systems, and reminded Metal to keep watch over Itara.  Once his preparations were complete, he nodded and added, “she should be getting off school in a couple hours, make sure she does her homework, eats dinner, and goes to bed by eight.  She’s hard to wake in the morning sometimes but make sure she’s up and dressed by seven so she can get to the train on time.  And don’t let her convince you to give her more than two cookies after dinner.  She will try her damnedest, but it always gives her a stomachache and she’ll whine about it the entire rest of the night.”  Metal watched in baffled silence while RK nodded and left the lab, confident that he could handle it.  Or at least, he hoped.

Having everything he needed, he laced up his boots, pulled his jacket tighter, and took off out the door.  He walked down the sidewalk, planning to run once he was further away from the houses.  On his way out, he ran into Susan, who stopped him to ask about some upcoming school event, but he had to duck out of the conversation, much to her annoyance.  He would talk to her more once he returned, _if_ he returned, but for now he had no time to waste.  It would be a long run and the snow would only make it longer, but he figured he ought to reach his destination by nightfall so long as nothing got in his way.

* * *

 

“RK!  I deserve a brownie!”

“You deserve to be kicked across a minefield.”

Itara jumped, flinging her shoe halfway across the room, at the exceptionally annoyed voice that responded.  Taking a moment to calm her breathing, she glared over at the blue robot leaning against the far wall, hissing, “You should have stayed broken!”  Huffing, she pulled her other shoe off angrily and went to retrieve the flung shoe, looking around for the robot she had actually expected to see, frowning when he didn’t respond to her earlier call.  “Where’s RK?”

“Out.”

“Where?”

“None of your business, but more importantly, he’s left me in charge of _you_ until he gets back.  I don’t know why he thinks I’m some kind of babysitter for brats, though.”  Itara glared again, subconsciously slinking away from him, getting a grin from the robot.  Standing up, he walked over to her, grabbing her by the back of the shirt and holding her out at arm’s length, grinning widely at the panic she was trying so hard to disguise with a scowl.  “Like a cornered animal.  Now, go on, _please_ tell me why you _deserve_ a brownie.”  If he had to watch the brat, he was at least going to have fun with it.

Itara, on the other hand, wanted desperately to know why RK would leave her alone with the psychopathic killer robot in the first place.  She didn’t deserve this abuse.  She just wanted to come home, get a brownie, and maybe avoid her homework.  She hadn’t checked her phone yet, so she hadn’t seen the texts from RK explaining the situation, she’d been too caught up in recent events, but she was planning to tell him off when he got back home.

* * *

 

The run out to his destination had been a long one.  Not only was the base he was headed for much further out than even the old one he and Itara used to stay in, but the snow had slowed him considerably.  He didn’t have the same equipment he once did, hovering hadn’t been an option since his initial damage at the hands of an exploding base, so he’d had to run the entire way.  It was made no easier by the fact that he was a considerably _heavy_ bot compared to most his size.  He was built as a war machine, after all, everything was heavily fortified.  It was the only reason he survived that explosion in the first place.  But it made snow and sand particularly difficult to get through.

As the day grew into night, he made his way through a thick line of trees and a large field opened up in front of him.  In the far-off distance, the lights of an enormous, brightly lit base came into view.  There was little between him and the base once he left the tree line, so he remained at the edges, scanning and studying what he could from the distance, formulating a plan.  And several backups.

The base stretched for several yards just from what he could see of the front and he knew several of the towering buildings would be heavily defended, both inside and out.  A long line of sparking wires wrapped around the outer edges and a number of smaller scout robots patrolled across the field.  He would need to either destroy only enough to reach it before they saw him, or find a way to get past them.  He opted for destroying.  The next issue would be getting inside the electric wire.  He would need to be cautious of cameras, likely more scouts, and heavier duty defense bots.  Then he would also need to ensure he had an escape route once he accomplished what he came for.

He briefly wondered if Robotnik had built anything similar to him or Metal Sonic since they went rogue.  Would he have to face another AI bot?  Or would they all be programmed defense bots?  There was no way to tell without turning his communications back online, but that was too risky.  Even if he was seen, he was unrecognizable in his current state, he could fight his way back out without tipping Robotnik off to his identity.  If he turned his communications back on, however, another bot could read his ID numbers and Robotnik, he imagined, would be far more likely to give chase knowing he was still out there and not destroyed.

No, he would just need to figure it out as he went.

First things first, he needed to get _to_ the base.  Pulling his jacket off, not wanting to restrict his arms in any way, he tied it around his waist and rolled his shoulders.  His fist ached for the crunch of destruction, as long as he didn’t go overboard he could have fun with this.

It was a decent run to the first scout bot but he managed to come around behind it and slammed a clawed fist directly through it, tearing it to shreds and sending sparking parts across the field long before it could ever register his presence and inform the other bots.  They were carefully spaced out across the field so he could waste no time admiring his handiwork before he had to bolt for the next.  He made his way through the field in a zigzag shape, shattering bots and leaving a field of nuts and bolts in his wake until he finally came up to the electric fence.  It was several feet high, probably enough to keep most organics out, more than likely designed to keep one specific hedgehog out, but RK had no intentions of going _over_ the fence in the first place.

Electrified as it was, because of the upgrades and precautions Itara had taken to deal with Metal Sonic, RK had little trouble taking down one of the posts connecting the fence’s power.  He suffered little more than a quick zap and restored his systems before the thick, metal pole even hit the ground, taking out several wires with it and creating enough of a gap for RK to get through.  The fence would be noticed right away, but they hopefully wouldn’t have sufficient time to repair it before he got out again.  For now, he needed to find his way inside and keep an eye out for cameras.  Luckily, he knew exactly what he was looking for.  Robotnik had never been subtle in any way.

* * *

 

“For the last time, would you just _watch_ and stop talking?!  You’re gonna miss the important parts if you keep talking through them!” Itara yelled, glaring over at the bot sitting across from her in what had once been designated RK’s chair.  A plate of pop tarts and a brownie sat on her crossed legs with a glass of half-drank milk between them, a kid’s cartoon was playing on the TV with the living room lights turned off.

“What makes you think I want to watch your ridiculous show in the first place?” Metal Sonic scoffed, leaning back, making a movement to cross his arms, though at the realization that he still only had one, put it back down.

“I can only assume you’re completely absorbed in it because you’re still here _and_ you’re asking questions,” Itara grumbled, “but I’m telling you, it’ll _explain_ why she’s fighting the giant horse robot _if you shut up and watch!_ ”

“I’m only here to make sure you eat your dinner and go to bed on time, as RK asked me to do.  I have no interest in these silly mortal pastimes.”

“I’m not mortal, either, you dumb robot.”

“Insult my intelligence one more time, _anomaly_!  I will send you back to that Sun God father of yours in pieces!”  Itara stuck her tongue out at him, but shrieked and scrambled away, knocking both her plate and milk over as the furious robot’s claws nearly clipped her sides and stabbed a hole through the back of the abandoned couch.

* * *

 

RK pulled his claws out of the towering Gunner, jumping back and watching it crash before taking off again.  While he had been trying to avoid fighting most of the sentinels to keep evidence of his presence to a minimum, that one had been directly guarding the entrance and wasn’t going to move otherwise.  Having taken it down, he studied the large metallic door.  It could be opened by most badniks, and Robotnik, himself, but he decided to smash through it.  It took a couple of hits before the door creaked and fell inward, granting him access to the inner base.  But now he needed to be extra cautious.  The inside would be better guarded and monitored than the outside.

Besides, the last time he had been inside an actual full-detail base… it came crashing down on him.

Keeping against the walls and his scanners active, he made his way through the winding halls, mostly using an outdated memory of general base layouts to navigate.  It was better than nothing but it wasn’t exactly going to be an efficient way to go about it, either.  He found several labs, charging rooms, and an empty sparing arena before he found the area he was looking for.  Unfortunately, his presence was finally noticed by a scout and managed to set off an alarm before he could eliminate it.  The scout didn’t last much longer after it set the alarm off, but RK knew he would need to hurry and retrieve what he was there for and get out.

But he still needed to find the right room.

Well, if he was already detected, it meant he no longer had a reason to hold back.  He had no choice but to destroy everything that came his way.  He wasn’t sure if it would complicate his escape or not, but he would deal with it when it came.  Continuing down the hall, a number of smaller bots rushed him from the other direction, likely intending to overwhelm him, but he smashed through them easily without even needing to stop.  He just hoped it wouldn’t get Robotnik’s attention _too_ directly.

* * *

 

“Stop-stop-stop!  O-okay!  I g-give!”

Metal Sonic came to a nearly sliding stop as the much smaller hedgehog curled into a ball at the end of the hallway, her hands wrapping around her ears as she cowered in front of him.  He hadn’t expected her to give in, at all, let alone so easily, and he almost felt more disgusted by the notion.  He was too used to dealing with Sonic and his endless amounts of sass and self-assurance, and while it wasn’t exactly unheard of for mobians to cower before him, it was rarely someone of any consequence.

But as he stood over her, contemplating what to do about her, she opened a single eye to glance up at him.  At first he considered letting her off with a _severe_ warning, as not even someone so tiny and clearly fragile would receive much mercy from him.  But then her expression shifted, and, within seconds, a powerful electrical current ran through him, sending his systems into shock, reacting too strongly to his own shorts to keep him functional.

Itara watched in silence as the blue robot sparked and jolted before toppling over, causing the lights in the house to flicker until he stopped, and stood up once she was sure he was off.  Huffing angrily, she stuck her tongue out at him again, taking the cord away from the floating doll behind where Metal had been standing and putting it away.  Kipper just floated over the robot, snickering, before following Itara back to the living room.

“He’s gonna be pissed when he gets back up, you know,” the doll grinned.

Itara frowned at the spilled milk and picked the cup up, taking it to the kitchen and grabbing paper towels to try and mop it up.  “It’s his fault for trying to kill me,” she stated, placing several paper towels on the spilled milk, grabbing her knocked over pop tarts and brownie, and returning to the couch to finish her show.  “… But hopefully he doesn’t turn back on until RK gets home.”  Kipper just laughed and landed on the back of the couch, deciding to watch the rest of the show with her.

* * *

 

Finally.  He found the right room.  He knew he wouldn’t have much time before more bots came and he had no intention of being cornered in the room, so he needed to find what he needed _fast._   As luck would have it, though, it was sitting right out on a counter.  Well, it did probably get the most use out of anything in Robotnik’s bases, so it made sense it would be easily accessible.  Grabbing it up and putting it safely away in a hidden compartment, he ran out of the room and back down the hall, mapping out where he’d been to figure out the easiest exit.

As he passed piles of shredded metal and strewn parts, though, he started growing suspicious when no more bots showed up to try and stop him.  He knew he couldn’t have destroyed every bot in the base, nowhere near it, so it likely meant Robotnik had something planned.  A trap, most likely.  He would need to be careful.  Hopefully whatever trap was planned was just a larger bot to fight and nothing he couldn’t break out of, but he would need to be careful about running into open areas, nonetheless.

He reached the exit again with no problem, raising his suspicions… until he saw a figure standing out in the open, clearly waiting for him.  It was too small to be Robotnik, but too tall to be another mobian or mobian-based bot.  However, as a light blue sword lit up the bot’s body, revealing the red coverings and long, blonde hair, RK realized who it was.  So he was working for Robotnik, after all?  But then why was he fighting a badnik in the shopping center?

Either way, RK wasn’t sure how much time he had to waste fighting the unusual bot.  If he was working for Robotnik, it meant he was likely watching from somewhere and RK didn’t want to be within the Doctor’s sight any longer than was necessary.  Walking out to meet the ponytailed bot, remembering his name was Zero, he looked around for the Doctor before questioning, “So you work for Robotnik after all?”

“I am assisting him currently, yes.  Why are you here?”

“I had a score to settle.  You don’t want this fight right now.”

“You believe you can beat me.”  It was no question.

“I might.  And as much as I want to find out for sure, I don’t have the time right now.  If you insist on a fight, I’m going to find a way to leave rather than meet you full-force.”

“That’ll be your mistake, then,” Zero stated, moving to attack.  RK gave a mental sigh while preparing to meet him in battle.  He didn’t want to stick around longer than necessary.  It was possible Robotnik could recognize his attack patterns and abilities, if he didn’t already know somehow, but he also didn’t want to chance holding back and somehow losing to the newcomer.

RK had expected the other bot to be strong, judging by appearance alone, he looked powerful and capable, but he hadn’t fully expected him to match him so well in pure physical strength.  He’d managed to avoid the sword, not knowing what it was made of and didn’t want to chance anything, but when he slammed a clawed fist into the side of his opponent’s head, he recovered much faster than most.  It at least put a small amount of distance between them, but at the speed Zero came at him again, the distance meant about as much as it did fighting Metal Sonic.  He was fast _and_ strong.

As much as the prospect of a worthy opponent excited him, RK knew he had to keep to his word and look for an out rather than meeting him full-force.  He would do enough to keep him at bay, mostly testing out his abilities at first, remaining on the defensive, but he also searched for any opening to create a distraction.  It wasn’t until Zero hit him square in the chest, denting the thick steel chassis, and sending him flying into one of the pillars that an idea occurred to him.  He had noticed Zero shift one of his fists into some kind of cannon on one arm and goaded him into charging it by keeping his distance as long as possible.  He seemed to prefer close-combat, as RK did, but when he realized he was going to stay out of his reach, a ranged attack became the obvious choice.

Perhaps a bit too obvious, though.

Zero charged his attack and RK maneuvered in front of one of the less structurally sound pillars, waiting just long enough for the blast to have its aim before he moved.  Though, equally last minute, Zero altered his aim to blast the other bot instead of the intended pillar, once again sending him flying.  RK flew through the remaining, functional fence, coming to a sliding stop far outside the base, having to take a moment to shake his systems back up and scramble to his feet again, taken aback.  He hadn’t expected Zero to anticipate the move, but he also wasn’t expecting to end up exactly where he wanted to be, either.  Zero wasn’t giving chase, for whatever reason, compelling RK to question his motives, but he had no time to contemplate it.  Giving one final glance towards the other red bot, RK turned tail and ran for it.

He wanted to actually fight Zero, at full-force, someday.  When he had the time, and when Robotnik wasn’t looming.  Whoever he was, whoever he was built by, he seemed like a promising opponent.  But for now, RK had a long run ahead of him and the damage he’d taken from the other bot would complicate it further.  Again.  He would need some additional repairs once he returned home.

 

When RK finally saw the neighborhood come into sight again it was well into the next afternoon and he was ready to shut down and recharge for several hours.  His systems were badly overheating and the damage during the fight had become all the more apparent the more he pushed it.  He had only been able to run at half his normal speed, and even had to stop to let his systems cool more than he would have liked to admit, making the return trip long and arduous compared to the run out.  The line of single-story, lightly painted houses was the most welcome relief he had felt in some time.  He slowed to a walk once he got close to the quiet neighborhood, checking the time and figuring he had about an hour or so before Itara should be home from school.

Once again, someone from the neighborhood caught sight of him on his way in, though this time it was Lynda and RK almost audibly groaned at having to deal with her.

“Well don’t you just look exhausted?  Hard day at work?”

“Something like that.”

“I won’t keep you long, then, I just wanted to ask if everything is alright at home, since I caught you.”  The concern on her face was not something RK wanted to see.  What happened while he was gone?

Narrowing his eyes with suspicion, he questioned, “what do you mean?”

“I mean, with your power flicking like that and Kimmie said she thought she heard screams last night.  She went over to see if everyone was alright but no one answered the door.”

RK wasn’t sure whether he was more concerned for Itara’s safety, or irritated by what likely happened.  But he couldn’t let Lynda know either thoughts and only reassured her, “the power is still a little faulty.  We finally got it fixed but with the snow and all, they said it’d likely still flicker a bit.  We can’t get a full overhaul until the snow melts.  As for the screams, Itara was just… watching a movie.  She’s easily startled sometimes and can be a little dramatic about it.”

“Oh, I see.  You shouldn’t let her watch something so scary so late, you know.”

“Apparently.  In any case, like you said, long day so…”

“Right, right, of course.  I’m just glad everything’s okay.  Go get some rest,” Lynda smiled, waving him on and returning to her house.  RK nodded and did just that, though was already reopening his communications to get onto Metal Sonic about whatever happened.  As soon as he did, however, a slew of messages from Itara dinged in, nearly blinding him for a moment as he reached the porch.  Taking a quick minute to minimize them again, he opened the door, pulling up a line to Metal Sonic, but stopped as soon as he did.

The couch was knocked over, there were wet towels on the carpet, Itara’s shoes were strewn carelessly in the doorway, there was a long, deep gash in one of the walls, and the fridge door was wide open.  That was what he could see from the _doorway_.  With a sharp intake, he yelled out for Itara, Metal Sonic, and Kipper, slamming the front door shut behind him.  As soon as he yelled, he got a screech in reply that echoed up from the lab and he stormed his way to the stairs, not even bothering to take his shoes or jacket off first.  The damage only got worse the further into the house he got.  More walls were marked up with claw marks, Itara’s bed was in utter chaos, cords were haphazardly thrown around the hallway, and the yelping noises coming from the lab were putting him on edge.

Once the lab came into view, the explanation for the yelps and screech became apparent as Metal Sonic stood near the computer with Itara wrapped tightly in his grip, kicking around, trying to escape.  RK took in another sharp breath before walking over and decking the other bot in the face, grabbing the tiny hedgehog in the process and looking her over to check that she would be alright.  She was shaking violently and coughing for air, but otherwise appeared unharmed, so he turned his attention, instead, to the blue bot that was pulling himself back to his feet.

“When I said _watch_ her, I didn’t mean _strangle_ her!  And what did you do to the walls?!  I leave for _one_ night and you two completely wreck the house!”

“That little _urchin_ deserves everything she got and more!” Metal growled back, “she has been mocking me the entire time and even _purposely shorted me_!”

“He t-tried to k-kill me!” Itara yelled back, though her voice was hoarse.

“I warned you!”

“Shut up, both of you,” RK interrupted before they could get any further, “I don’t want to hear another word until this house is fixed.  I mean it.”  With that, he turned around and carried Itara upstairs, wanting to get a better look at her, and scold her for skipping school, leaving a frustrated and, once again, baffled Metal Sonic to sulk angrily in the lab below.  RK had been expecting chaos when he got home, considering what he heard from Lynda, but he hadn’t expected just how much damage the two could cause in one night.  Not to mention Kipper was nowhere to be seen, having likely incited plenty of it, as well.  He wasn’t even sure he wanted the full story on this one.

It took several hours of calming, and cleaning, before any of them were willing to talk again.  RK got as much fixed as possible without the need of putty and paint, questioning Itara on the spilled liquid and having to take several more minutes to not strangle both of them, himself, once he got the answer.  He turned the couch back up, properly cleaned the spilled milk and crumbs, put all the cords away, and gave the school a call to let them know Itara was just out sick for the day.  Itara cleaned up her room and Metal remained down in the lab, not wanting to see any of them.  When Kipper finally made his appearance again, RK gave him a good, _long_ talking to before letting Itara have him again.

He then fixed a proper meal for the little girl, who had only been snacking most the night when she wasn’t being chased by Metal Sonic, and sat down with her at the table to let his systems cool again.  He still needed to talk to Metal about the incident, but he needed far more energy than was available for that.

After the long afternoon of quiet, Itara finally piped up for the first time since he got home.  “So… uh… what did you even go do?”

In all the chaos of getting home, RK had nearly forgotten the entire reason he left in the first place and suddenly debated the worth of going.  But once he opened the compartment and pulled the small plastic case out, remembering the entire reason he stole it, he decided it was still absolutely worth it.

Itara, however, only stared, her face twisting into further confusion when he opened the case, “what is that?”

“Robotnik’s mustache comb.”


	11. Outings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frustrated with Metal Sonic and Itara after he returned home from his mission, RK decides the three of them need to spend some time together to make the two bond.

Itara eyed the slush across the school yard with caution and disgust.  Her classmates filed out the doors around her and made their way to the gate to leave, catching her attention as a number of them slipped and slid across the wet, icy ground.  She didn’t want to meet the same fate and embarrass herself so she preferred waiting until most, if not all, others were already passed before heading out, herself.  As she prepared to step out onto the slush, with another quick glance around, she caught sight of a flash of red above the gates and stopped to watch.  Dark blue, oddly shiny ears poked out next, causing her to narrow her eyes suspiciously.

Questioning why _he_ would be there waiting for her outside school, she continued across the yard, looking up at the red robot casually chatting with the on-duty teacher once he came into view around the gate posts.

RK looked down at the young hedgehog when he caught sight of her, explaining, “There you are.  I thought we’d pick you up today.”

“We?” Itara practically hissed, looking around him to see Metal Sonic standing behind him, glaring off in another direction, seeming about as pleased about the situation as she was.

“Yes, I thought we’d do something together in town.  Come on,” RK motioned for her to climb up on his back, crouching down so she could do so and standing again once she was situated.  He gave a final nod to the teacher and turned back towards the train station, giving Metal a quick nudge to follow.  The blue bot grumbled unintelligibly, but reluctantly followed, though refused to speak even once they were further from people again.

“So… what’s this about, then?” Itara asked, at least relieved she didn’t have to walk in the slush anymore.  She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to deal with Sparky at the moment, but at least RK was there.

“To be frank, I’m still annoyed with you two regarding what happened when I left.  You two need to learn to get along, however that has to happen.  We’ve got enough enemies as is, we don’t need to fight one another, so while searching online for ideas, I read that quality time together was the most effective way to bond.  There are a number of ways to go about that, but due to certain limitations between the three of us, the best option I found was a day out on the town.  What we do is up to you two, as long as it’s within reason, but it has to be something we can do _together_.”

Metal scoffed, shoving his one hand in the deep coat pockets and glared away from them, “this is pointless.  I have no need to _get along_ with that brat.  The only reason I’m even still here is because _you_ obviously need watching around her.  She’s going to be your downfall someday, RK, mark my words.”  He scowled back towards the little hedgehog, who returned the look from the safety of RK’s back.

RK shook his head, “and that’s what I’d like to prove to you, Metal Sonic.  She isn’t the threat you think she is.  Besides, weren’t you the one who essentially created her?”  The question gained him a scowl from both parties, but he ignored them and continued, “You should be more concerned with her continued growth, considering all the effort you put into bringing her into the world.”  Metal’s gaze became briefly contemplative at the final comment, looking ahead to consider it, before he scoffed and looked away again.

“I only created her at the behest of Robotnik.  Even though _I_ was the one to retrieve the scepter from the desert, _I_ was the one who chose the vessel, and _I_ was the one who ran all the experiments to find the right solution before it was all _stolen_ from me,” he snarled, his hand moving out of his pocket to flex and curl angrily, he finished, “I still don’t trust your little anomaly.  In fact, everything regarding her creation only angers me further.  I should like to crush her for the sole factor that she constantly reminds me of working under that fool of a doctor.”

“Imagine if you had actually listened to me when you went rogue,” Itara muttered, squeaking in surprise when RK suddenly jerked to catch Metal’s wrist.

“Enough.  Both of you,” he warned, eyeing Metal to back down before he would let go of his wrist and continued on.  “This is what I intend to start fixing today.  I don’t want to hear another argument out of either of you.  We’re going into town, we’re doing things together, you’re going to get along, and that’s that.  Now.  Where do you want to go?”  Itara huffed loudly while Metal made no attempt to hide his seething, though still kept pace with RK as they continued.  “That’s not an answer.  If you don’t pick, I will.”

“Fine, then I wanna go get a new game,” Itara exclaimed, “I… there’s… I just… heard they were fun.  I wanna see what’s so apparently great about them.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” RK agreed, mapping out the nearest stores that sold any kind of games, narrowing them down to shops that specialized in them but asked, “what kind of game did you mean?  There are apparently many.”

“V-Video games,” she stammered, her face flushing in embarrassment.

Nodding again, RK narrowed his search down by video games and found a number of video game stores, as well as ‘arcades’, which apparently offered games you could play right on site instead of at home.  Once he had the nearest location mapped out, he sent the address to Metal Sonic and they took off at a quicker pace.  Though, it occurred to RK, as he was researching what all video games and arcades entailed, that Itara didn’t have any of the required systems.  They had a computer down in the lab she could play ‘PC games’ on, but she had no consoles or handhelds.  If she wanted anything like that, he would also need to pick one of those up.

Luckily, he just got paid.

It was a relatively short run to the first store and RK reminded Metal Sonic to mind himself before they walked in, to which he once again scoffed and glared off.  The store was average in size for the area, with one main counter where the registers were set up and two humans standing behind them going about their work.  The entirety of the walls, and five or six stands were filled with game boxes, all organized by the system they played on.  On one wall near the front, two screens with controllers attached to each were set up, playing demos of various new releases.  There were only a couple other shoppers in the store, one standing at the counter talking with an employee, and the other shuffling about towards the back.

“So, what exactly did you have in mind, Itara?”

“I… I don’t know… exactly,” she frowned, looking around, “I just… some of my classmates talk about the games they play all the time and… I th-thought… maybe…”  Her voice trailed off and RK reached back to pull her off his back, setting her on the ground.

“Why don’t you look around, then?  See if anything catches your attention.  Just keep in mind we’ll likely have to pick up whatever system it’s played on, as well.  We only have a computer, after all.”  As much as he wanted to get Itara what she wanted, especially if it might help her socialize more at school, some prices were considerably higher than others.

“R-Right,” she fidgeted, looking around before taking off cautiously into the store to look around.

Once she had taken to looking through the cases, RK decided to have a look around, himself, wanting to know more about the new interest Itara had apparently picked up.  As he moved towards the demos playing, curious what they were about, Metal scoffed from behind him.  “So we’re wasting time and energy on _games_ now, are we?”

“I don’t consider it a waste if it fulfills a purpose.”

“And what purpose is that, hm?  Appeasing your tiny master?”

RK turned towards him again and crossed his arms, “she’s not my master, I’ve explained this.  A number of times.  Nor is the purpose to appease her.  I asked you both what you wanted to do, she answered first.  That said, I do want to find something we can all do together and my searches turned up the idea of an ‘arcade’, that offers promise.”

“I’m so glad we’ve escaped the Doctor’s control to play _games_ with _children_ ,” Metal complained, walking away from him to examine what the shop had to offer.  RK watched him, frowning, but gave a mental sigh and returned to his searches.  It would take Metal some time to adjust to the situation.  Maybe once he was better repaired his mood would improve.  It was just difficult to find full parts for repair during the winter.

After some time, watching both Itara and Metal scour through the store for anything of potential interest, one of them noticeably more interested in their search than the other, Itara returned to RK first with a couple of the smaller cases.  She held them up towards him, excitement thinly veiled behind uncertainty as she explained, “I… I think… these look… fun?  But I… I can’t decide… I only want one, I promise… but… I don’t know which one.”

He took one up, looking over it and checking the system it needed, searching it online to learn as much as possible before searching for the other one.  They were at least the same price, and were luckily the cheaper options, as they were for handhelds, but were vastly different games.  One was a simulation of some kind and the other was an ‘adventure’ game; both had particularly cartoony and ‘cuter’ styles, though they varied considerably.  Handing the games back, he questioned, “did you want me to let you know which one is higher rated?  Or would you prefer a more detailed description of the gameplay to help your decision?”

“Um… g-gameplay, please.”  Nodding, he gave a full explanation of each game, based on what he had found in his search, though left out the story elements of the adventure game, in case she chose it.  When she still seemed unsure, he added that both supported multiplayer, but the simulation would be easier to play with others who might not be at the same point of the game as her.  “I… I think I’ll… go with this one, then,” she finally decided, handing the simulation game to him to return the adventure game to the rack, though added a final, “Not that I care about multiplayer, though!  I don’t care about other people!”

“Of course you don’t,” RK sighed, turning the box over in his hand before walking over to where Metal Sonic was studying a wall of console games.  “Find something you like?”

He gave a short, sarcastic laugh in response, “don’t be ridiculous.  I was simply studying what people distracted themselves with lately.  How pointless.”

“You know, if you want one, you can just say so.  While I was waiting I looked into prices for all the systems and, while the newer ones are a bit expensive, it seems easy enough to get older ones cheaper online.  I’m going to need to get Itara a handheld for her game, but I can probably-”

“Don’t be stupid.  Hurry and get your little master’s games so we can leave already,” Metal growled, turning away and returning to the door.  “If I stay here much longer I may destroy something.”

RK sighed in annoyance, rolling his eye but turning back towards the counter to see about the game and handheld.  He may get a cheaper console and a couple games to set up in the living room after all later.  Just to spite Metal Sonic for insulting him.  Besides, maybe it could be something he and Itara could do together, instead of destroying the house while he was out.

Once Itara had the color and type of system picked out and RK paid for them both, having her put the bag in her backpack so it didn’t get lost or destroyed while they were out, he led the way back outside, looking into the next destination.  He wanted to try the arcade next.  Not only did they have games to play, but it seemed most offered food and he was sure Itara was getting hungry.  Plus, in a busy place like that, with more than just food going on, it wouldn’t be suspicious if he and Metal Sonic didn’t eat anything while Itara did.  With his decision made, he gave the address to Metal again, pulling Itara back on his back, and took off.

“It’s not going to be… _too_ busy… right?” Itara asked, sounding a bit unsure of the idea.

“I’m unsure, hopefully not,” RK explained, slowing to a walk again once the neon lights of the arcade came into view.  Metal Sonic had taken off ahead of them and was waiting impatiently outside the door, even going so far as to tap his foot.  RK had to resist the comment almost begging to be made at the sight, but managed to keep it down, not wanting to incite a brawl in the middle of the city.  Instead, he continued leading the way inside, warning both of them not to wander too far as they entered the expansive building.

It was a decently packed place, with hordes of both small children and parents alike crawling around every corner, yelling loudly, the noise bouncing off the tall walls and echoing up to the high ceiling.  The front was mostly restaurant, with a long buffet as well as a line of pizzas behind glass.  A separate section was cornered off for tables and seating, leaving the restaurant floor mostly open, save for an exhausted parent or two going back and forth between the buffet and tables and the occasional screaming child running amok with a face full of pizza sauce.

Past the checkered restaurant floor was a small stretch of half wall that opened into the arcade portion, where the majority of the children were running around, waving play guns, tickets, or various brightly colored plastic toys.  The sounds of noisy games barely reached the front over the noise of the children and teens running wild around them.  There was a wide enough range of games to play, and plenty all three of them could even play together, but the battlefield between them and those games was causing even RK to double guess his decision.

However, as soon as both Itara and Metal Sonic turned incredulous looks to him, a stubbornness sparked and he continued in towards the busy arcade.  If nothing else, maybe this would teach them to get along in the future, so he didn’t force them to return here again.  Of course, while Itara had no choice in the matter, she was on his back and wasn’t likely going to run for it on her own, Metal Sonic hesitated before following him in.  He had plenty of freedom to run for it, and even a number of reasons to do so, but matched RK’s pace soon enough, his glare returning to his face before long.  Itara, however, just sighed and resigned herself to her fate.  At least she couldn’t be totally clobbered from RK’s back.

“Did you want something to eat first?”

Looking around the area and debating, wondering just how long she wanted to draw this torment out, she shook her head.  “No.  Not really.”  Maybe she’d get something to drink later, but for now she didn’t want to chance getting down long enough to eat.  Nodding, RK looked into how the games worked, scouted out the nearest ‘token’ machine, and got them a handful of the strange coins.  He decided he would walk around the area first, wanting to scout it out, before making any decisions, and mostly hoping Itara would spot something that interested her.  He wasn’t holding out much hope in Metal Sonic playing along so easily, he would likely have to ‘nudge’ him into playing, but maybe he could at least get Itara started.

Luckily, it took less time than he was expecting for all the flashing lights and music to catch the tiny hedgehog’s attention.  She remained silent for a good few minutes while they walked, studying the games carefully, devising which were complete random chance, which ones were skill based, and which ones required too much physical exertion.  Some of the more physical games she’d decided she wanted to see RK and Sparky play but for now she wanted something she could play.  Eventually, one of the fighting game cabinets caught her attention, as the name suggested some kind of battle of the gods, and she poked RK in the cheek to point it out.

“You want to play that one?”  He raised an eyebrow, figuring why she likely picked it, but moved towards it.

“Kinda… I mean, I just wanna see… how it works, that’s all,” she stammered, getting an eye roll from Metal Sonic.  “But you should play with me.  Since, you know, it’s a two-player thing.”

“Are you going to be able to reach the controls without me holding you up?”

Itara’s face dropped at the realization, looking around frantically before pointing desperately at Metal Sonic instead, “you!  Fight me, instead!  We have a score to settle, anyway.”  Though mumbled angrily, “stupid machines, being built all human-sized.”

Metal Sonic only raised an eyebrow, “what makes you think I want to play your silly games?”

“Because I’m challenging you to a battle.  Unless you don’t think you can beat me even in a video game,” she grinned, watching the one red eye glow furiously before he moved over to the other side of the controls.

“Fine.  If you wish to be wholly defeated on your own terms, then I’ll happily oblige.”

“Less talking, more tokens!”

Not even RK was sure where the sudden bout of energy came from, but handed her the tokens they needed and pulled Itara from his back to hold her up to the machine.  She was right about one thing, though, the machines were obviously built with humans in mind, rather than mobians.  There were, however, several stacks of stools around the area, likely for that reason, but Itara seemed more intent to battle Metal Sonic now, anyway.  He didn’t mind watching, though, the entire point was to get them to do something less destructive together.

Unfortunately, the ‘fight’ turned out just as he and Metal both expected it, much to Itara’s dismay.  Once Metal had the controls memorized, it was only a matter of reading Itara’s tactics, which he was built specifically to do.  The match was over quick and Itara was right back to pouting, but already searching out a new game to beat him in.  RK couldn’t help but give a small laugh, but Metal seemed far less amused by the entire ordeal.  Once her feet were back on the ground, and her backpack was thrown to RK, Itara took off to find their next match, calling over to them from a couple feet away.

“I never agreed to play any more of these games,” Metal Sonic argued once they reached her again, but it went in one ear and out the other as Itara held her hands out for more tokens.

“The last game was all computer tactics; this one will be fairer,” she insisted, motioning to the two giant pinball machines, “the one with the highest score wins.”

Metal Sonic was about to inform her that she would still be battling a computer, but RK moved into his sight and shook his head, handing her the tokens.  While she dragged a stool over that had been left near the machines, the taller red bot sent him a direct message warning him not to ruin her fun.  Just what did he expect to happen when she was beat again because she was still facing an AI, though?  RK gave no response and only handed him the tokens and pat his back, a little more forcefully than he had been expecting.  More importantly, however, how did either of them expect him to play such a game with one arm?!  They still hadn’t replaced one of his limbs!

As if realizing the problem before he could even bring it up, though, RK moved over beside him and reached out for the button he couldn’t press.  Between Metal Sonic’s missing arm and RK’s missing hand, they had just enough hands to handle either side of the machine.  Itara looked over at them with an eyebrow rose, having forgotten about Metal’s removed arm.  RK just motioned with his hook to explain what he was doing and smirked as the realization flashed across her face.  He had managed to beat her so easily with one hand on the fighting game that she had forgotten that he wasn’t just mocking her.

Refocusing in on her own game, she grinned, “well you’re gonna need the help to beat me, anyway!”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Metal Sonic grumbled, exchanging a look with the red robot looming over him before focusing on his own machine.

Pinball took considerably longer than the fighting game, since it wasn’t actually two-player, but Itara ended up coming out victorious, much to Metal’s fury this time.  He accused RK of letting her win but the other bot just waved the idea off and suggested another game they could play to distract him.  Itara had decided she wanted to see the two robots square off in a game this time and pointed out the Test of Strength, grinning wildly up at them as they both looked down at her incredulously.  “Dare you to do it without breaking the machine.”  RK couldn’t help but wonder if there was an ulterior motive to her plan when he noticed the grin on her face once they agreed.

Metal Sonic went first, walking around the machine a couple times to test its sturdiness, wondering just how much force he could put through it without breaking it and realized it was much less than he would have liked.  He wasn’t even built for pure strength like RK and even he had to hold back considerably, his ‘punch’ being more of a flick and still, the tiny mechanical punching bag screeched at the speed it had been shoved back.  The lights flashed wildly and an irritating horn blared, screaming about a high score and catching the attention of a number of passersby.  His attention went back to the machine as a long line of tickets started printing out onto the floor, which Itara wasted no time collecting.

Next it was RK’s turn, who looked even more unsure than Metal Sonic had.  He hit even harder and sometimes had trouble gauging the amount of force he put into punches.  Not to mention, unlike Metal Sonic, who only had clawed fingers, he had two long, metallic claws stretching out from his fist that he could do nothing about.  It would be too easy to leave the machine in the same condition as Robotnik’s scout bots.  Reeling back, he turned his fist to keep his claws out of the mechanical arm, and thrust forward with the slowest, least conspicuous punch he could.  Yet still, not only did the mechanical arm screech back into its socket, but the entirety of the machine jolted back and nearly toppled over, if Metal Sonic hadn’t caught it and righted it just as quickly.

The machine started blaring again and, despite not destroying it, at least, the show caught more attention than either bots were comfortable with, even as the clueless hedgehog with them dove again for the long strand of tickets coming out.  RK recognized a couple looks as similar to the ones Lynda often gave him and quickly turned his attention back to Itara to avoid any possible social opportunities.  Once she had her tickets, he picked her back up and motioned for Metal Sonic to follow.  He did no grumbling about it this time, at least.  They got as far from the machine as possible, finding the clearest section of room they could, before RK audibly sighed.

“Perhaps it’s best if we avoid machines we could potentially _break_ for future games,” he stated, Itara looking up from the now neatly folded pile of tickets, grinning.

“But it was fun to watch.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to be responsible for replacing anything.  Besides, it draws attention, even in this crowded place.”

Itara frowned, looking between the two bots before shrugging, “yeah, yeah, alright.  You did it once so I guess that’s enough.  But look at all these tickets!  I bet we could get something cool with all these!”

RK’s eyebrow rose, looking at the tickets as he shook his head, “so that’s why you actually wanted us to do that one.”

“W-what?!  N-no!  I mean… it was fun to watch, too…”

Metal Sonic scoffed, reaching over and quickly swiping half the tickets, getting a whine from the little girl, “I believe _these_ are mine.  You only get to steal RK’s.  If you want more, you should get them, yourself.”

“What?!  But-But Sparky!”

“Now I’m especially not letting you have them.”

RK couldn’t help but notice the slight smirk on Metal’s face at Itara’s utter defeat, but shook his head.  It was better than fighting.  “Come on, we’ve still got more tokens, let’s see how many more tickets we can get you before we head home.”

Itara huffed angrily at Metal Sonic, sticking her tongue out at him even though he’d turned his back, but nodded to RK, “Yeah, okay.  We’ll show him!”  RK smirked and nodded, setting Itara down again to let her lead to whatever she wanted to do next.  Metal Sonic followed behind them again, though more willingly joined the games this time around, claiming to want to keep Itara from getting as many tickets as she hoped but RK was picking up on ulterior motives again.  He wouldn’t say anything, though.

They went through a few more games, a couple shooters, where Itara had more fun trying to shoot everyone _but_ the monsters on the screen; a ball-rolling game, that Metal Sonic seemed all too pleased to show off his physical prowess over; and finally a racing game that started with Itara facing off against RK but ended with RK facing off against Metal Sonic in a second round.  By the time the tokens ran out, Itara got noticeably crankier from being hungry so they headed for the prize counter to turn in the tickets they’d collected.

Itara was left baffled and disappointed when, even with her considerable pile; she could still only get a little plastic spider ring and a gummy pencil top.  Metal Sonic’s pile fared no better, but he was far less interested in actually redeeming his than Itara had been.  As she was trying to decide how to split up her tiny prizes, he tossed the pile to her and looked off.

“I don’t need silly plastic toys.”

Itara eyed him suspiciously, but recovered quickly enough and told the person behind the counter to add the new tickets to the pile so she could see her new total.  With the addition of Metal’s tickets, she managed to reach a high enough count to get a booklet of stickers if she used all of them.  It wasn’t anything fancy, just generic stars and faces and two-word expressions, but it was far more interesting than plastic spider rings and Itara happily took it, quickly stowing it away in her backpack.  With the prizes taken care of, she returned to RK’s back and the three of them left the restaurant arcade.  It was dark and much colder outside by the time they left, prompting Itara to wrap back up in the jacket she’d ditched long ago.  With her properly wrapped up again, RK and Metal Sonic took off for the city limits, keeping to a quicker pace until they reached them, but taking off in a run once they were in the clear.

Metal Sonic was, as always, much faster and beat RK back to the house by several minutes.  He was already down in the lab and hooked up to the charging station by the time RK got in the front door.  He put Itara down, telling her to go put her new stuff away while he got her dinner ready.  The day had a bit of a rough start, but he thought they at least made some progress.  He just needed to find out if it lasted to the morning.  They were in fine enough moods for now, but the real test of progress would come from how they acted towards each other tomorrow.  But that was a concern for tomorrow.  For now, he had a dinner to prepare.


	12. Valentine's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Valentine's Day and while Itara has no interest in celebrating, RK has some ideas to hopefully improve Metal Sonic's mood.

"I thought you didn't like these 'silly' things."  RK grinned down at the other bot, watching him turn a hateful eye up at him from the couch.  Metal Sonic was sat, crossed-legged in the middle of the couch, a controller sat on one knee so he could reach all the buttons with one hand.  The TV sat on a pause screen with an older, lightly scuffed game console connected to it and placed beside it on the stand.  RK pulled off his boots as Metal returned to his game, resisting the urge to laugh at the lack of response and, instead, decided to watch.

The game was a pixelated platformer that RK had picked up in a bundle deal with the console online.  Someone was selling it on a resale site along with two games and two controllers for far cheaper than any store listings.  He was originally going to have to wait until his next paycheck to pick anything up, but it had been a lucky find.  Itara had been thrilled by its appearance, and spent equal amounts of time dodging homework to play the handheld simulation game and the console platformer.  Metal Sonic, on the other hand, had spent several weeks scoffing at it before RK finally caught him playing it when he came home from work.

"I don't," the other bot insisted, still glaring at the screen, "I'm just studying.  Your tiny child seems to greatly enjoy these so obviously they're some form of mental training.  I refuse to be left behind in these strange training tactics."

RK almost audibly laughed.  At least Metal Sonic had stopped calling her an 'anomaly', but to insist that she was training rather than just enjoying the games was so utterly ridiculous he doubted Metal actually expected him to believe it.  "Sure, Metal, it's training," he grinned, turning back towards the kitchen, knowing Itara would be home from school soon and wanted to have an afterschool snack ready for her.  Metal cast him another sideways scowl, but returned to the game quickly enough.  It was something at least.  Now he wondered how often Metal came up from the lab to play while no one was home.  Maybe he would ask Kipper.

Just as expected, Itara got home almost as soon as he finished making her a snack, setting it out on the table as the front door closed and looked over to let her know it was there.  He stopped when he saw the frustrated look on her face, though.  "What's wrong?"  Metal looked over from the TV to study her, but said nothing and returned again to the game.  He couldn't be distracted from his training.

"There's some kind of event coming up at the school and I don't understand it," she explained, glancing at Metal Sonic and the TV, eyeing him suspiciously, before continuing to the table, "RK, what do you know about Valentine's Day?"

"Let me find out."  Motioning to the snack at the table, he opened his internal browser and searched the term, scanning through several articles, histories, and common modern practices to give her a full explanation.  Well.  Almost full.  There were some apparent facets of the holiday he would not be explaining, since they were more adult-based than something someone her... well, physical... age should be concerned with.  "It appears to be a holiday for couples, mostly.  Depending on the region and culture, one side of a couple gives the other some sort of edible gift and card, sometimes a toy of some kind.  They can either be homemade gifts or store bought.  For younger children, it's seems more customary to give out cards to classmates, as well as a potential future mate."  Looking down at her again, he questioned, "What did the school say regarding this?"

"They said we could hand out cards but only after school to keep distractions to a minimum.  But chocolates were to be left outside school."  She poked at the carrots on her ‘snack’ plate, having been hoping for a cookie but at least the dipping sauce was sugary.  "I don't really have any interest in any of it but if someone's giving out free chocolate I want some."

"Did you... want to make cards for you classmates?"

"No, not really.  I don't like any of them that much."

RK contemplated it, wondering whether he should force the subject further or not but shrugged and let her be.  It did, however, give him an idea.  "Very well, then finish your snack and do your homework."

Itara mumbled incoherently under her breath at the mention of homework, but side-eyed Metal from the table, "I thought those were 'silly mortal things', Sparky?"  RK smirked again while Metal Sonic glared over his shoulder.

"As I told RK earlier, I will tell you now.  I am studying your tactics, _child_.  Just because you use strange systems to train with doesn't mean I haven't caught onto it.  Now silence and let me train."

"What?  Those aren't-" But RK stopped her, shaking his head with a slight smirk.  He wanted to see how long Metal Sonic thought that excuse would last and having Itara explain it outright would cut his fun short.  She eyed him when he did, but shrugged and went back to her snack, mumbling again while RK headed down to the lab.  He needed to charge for a while; it had been an active day at work.

* * *

 

“And you’re absolutely sure you don’t want to pick up some cards on the way to school?  It’ll be last minute but…,” RK began, helping Itara into her jacket and backpack.  No matter how many times he asked to be sure, she always refused, but he figured he would give it one final check before she headed off for the day of.

But just as she’d done every other time, Itara rolled her eyes and pulled her shoes on, “I’m sure, RK.  I don’t care enough.  I doubt I’m going to get anything, why should I bother with them?”

“You never know, you might.”

She scoffed and turned for the door, reaching up for the knob, “I don’t need my powers to know.  I’m leaving now.”

“Alright, see you when you get home.  Try not to fight any monsters or set any robots off on your class today.”  He stood back up and followed her to the door, getting a ‘hardy har’ from the little girl as she stepped carefully off the porch.  It had been a few days since the last snow and the temperature was beginning to up-and-down its way towards warmer days, but there was still no end to the slippery slush.  The snow had reached a high point of four feet and there were several inches of pure ice underneath the thickest parts.  The ice was kept mostly off the sidewalks and roads, but even a bit of slush offered a precarious trip for someone as clumsy as the tiny hedgehog edging her way down to the station.

RK watched her for several feet, as he often did, before turning back around and closing the door.  Metal was lounged across the couch again, the controller resting within reach on the floor, clicking through the limited channels the antenna offered.  RK made a quick reminder about looking into cable or satellite TV as he walked to the closet to grab one of his longer jackets to pull on, returning as Metal finally decided on a news report.

“More monsters sited outside of Soleanna today.  Officials are warning citizens to be cautious of these monsters, and are urging anyone with potential information to report it to the proper authorities.  Rumors have started that the Royal Family might be seeking out the help of Sonic the Hedgehog to deal with these threats, though an unknown figure has been spotted taking out a number of them, as well.  Today we’ll-.”

“Tch.”  Metal scoffed, flipping the channel and reaching for the controller to turn the console on, instead.  “Idiot hedgehog.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to fight him again someday,” RK commented on his way to the door, getting a side-eyed glare from the other robot, though only for a quick second before the starting screen of his game drew his attention back to the TV.  “In any case, I need to make a run into town but I won’t be long.  Did you want anything while I’m out?”

“The rest of my body.”

“Hopefully soon, Metal.”  RK closed the door behind him, debating whether or not to lock the door, since there was technically someone home, but thought it best to lock it just in case.  He didn’t want to chance anything.  Tossing his keys in his jacket pocket, he headed down the driveway, pulling up the directions to his destination.  As per usual, he walked far enough to be out of sight of the neighborhood, and then took off on a careful run.  The slush and ice made it difficult even for him.

While doing his research regarding the day for Itara, RK had realized that Valentine’s Day, while mostly reserved for romantic—generally organic—couples, offered an opportunity for people to grow closer and bond more.  He’d read that many friend groups often celebrated the holiday with each other, as well, and even parents sometimes bought candies or toys for their children.  Much like any other holiday, it seemed to spread beyond one, singular, purpose and therefore gave him an idea.  He’d already bought a pack of the brownies Itara liked for when she got home, now he wanted to pick something up for Metal Sonic.

Itara would be at school for the bulk of the day, and he didn’t have work today, so he thought he might spend some time with Metal.  He was hoping, between the gift he was picking up and the plans for later, it might improve Metal’s mood by at least a small margin.  The other bot really was just _always_ grumpy and, having made a list of likely reasons, RK planned to run them down to see what would finally pick his partner back up again.  He didn’t remember Metal Sonic always being such a grouch, after all.  Destructive, sure, that was the core of his programming: to annihilate anything that stood in his way.  But not always so angry.

He was sure working under Robotnik had sparked much of that animosity, going back to the doctor after going rogue once before and then continuously not being used for your main purpose.  He wasn’t sure what was worse: being misused or being inactive, but either way, it was a sore spot for either of them.  But while he’d finally gotten mostly over it, Metal Sonic hadn’t.  RK didn’t blame him, there was more there to hate for him, but it made the top most reason for his anger hard to combat.  So, instead, he would start on the rest of the list and maybe after some time, and repairs, Metal Sonic could feel more at ease.

Getting him active again and able to move was step one and two.  The boxed item tucked away under his arm was step three.  It hadn’t been an easy item to find by any means, he hadn’t planned to even start looking until the snow melted more, but the holiday gave him the push to look.  It had been the first time he’d ever relied on anyone from work for anything, normally he didn’t talk to anyone, but he remembered a guy he worked with a couple times before that could be of use and got in contact with him.  He was shockingly helpful.  RK would need to do some work on it, himself, once he got it home, or Metal could, but that wouldn’t be a problem for either of them.

It was an hour’s run out, with the inconvenience of the ice, and another hour’s run home for the same reason.  Luckily, the actual pick-up was an in-and-out job with no delays.  It was barely ten by the time he reached the neighborhood again and the present for Metal was still safely tucked away in its long, wrapped box.  He hurried down the street… but had to resist a cringe as a woman’s voice called out to him as soon as he passed the third house down from theirs.

“Oh!  RK!  I was just going to head over to your place to see if you were home,” Lynda called out in her ever-cheerful voice.  RK inwardly sighed, but turned around to face the woman cautiously jogging up to him.  She was as heavily made-up as ever and wrapped in a thick, white, wooly sweater, her hair smelled heavily of a bleach scent, which RK learned was a tactic organics used to lighten their hair or fur.  It was more common for humans than mobians as mobians were more sensitive to the chemical.

“Hello Lynda.  What can I do for you today?”  _Please let it be nothing_.

“Did you hear the news this morning?  More attacks in the city, isn’t it just dreadful?  I’m so afraid for my Simon sometimes, with everything that’s happened,” she frowned, her hand going up to her mouth, “do you worry for Itara as well?”

The side of RK’s mouth pulled back as he considered the answer.  Well, he worried for Itara plenty, but usually for other reasons.  “I suppose I do, but she knows how to take care of herself.”  _Mostly.  As long as Mephiles isn’t around._

“Oh, what a strong girl she must be,” Lynda responded, continuing for several minutes about topics RK only vaguely paid attention to.  She went on about the school, the attacks, Simon’s various allergies, even mentioning Sonic at one point and causing RK to change the subject when she questioned him about his view on the hedgehog.  He didn’t loathe Sonic quite like Metal did, but he was no fan of him, either.  When Lynda went on a tangent about the blue hedgehog, the news report earlier that day sparking her sudden interest, RK finally stopped her when she mentioned Knuckles.  He still had the same knee-jerk reaction to his mobian counterpart, much as Metal Sonic did, and didn’t want to provoke a reaction in front of the human woman who seemed otherwise entirely oblivious to the concerns of mobians.

“Listen, Lynda, as much as I don’t mind standing here chatting with you,” he interrupted, _though he actually minded quite a bit_ , “I need to get this home and out of the cold.”  He motioned towards the box under his arm, drawing her attention to it and seeming to remind her of her initial reason for coming out.  “So if there’s nothing-.”

“Oh!  Right, I’m sorry,” she laughed, waving a hand, “there was something I wanted to ask you, though.”

_Great._

“So, you know what day it is, right?”  There was a strange coyness to her tone.

“Valentine’s Day, correct?  Itara asked about it in regards to school.”

“Yes, I bought Simon some little cartoon cards to hand out to his class.  Did Itara bring anything for it?”  RK shook his head and she continued, “well, anyway, the kids are gone until much later and, as you know, I’m a single woman these days.  There really aren’t many other single dads—or uncles, I suppose—around here.  I was wondering if you maybe wanted to come celebrate a bit at my house.  We could have a Valentine Lunch, with the house all to ourselves.  What do you think?”

Oh.  So that was it.  RK looked away from her, mentally grimacing at the offer and narrowing down the best possible response.  Of course, he couldn’t actually eat and that was a problem in and of itself, but more than anything he already had plans to spend time with Metal.  Maybe that was a sufficient enough response.  Looking over again, he studied her expectant expression before explaining, “I apologize, I’m afraid I can’t.  I already have plans with… Sparky today.”  Motioning towards the box again, he continued, “This is a present for him, in fact.”

Lynda’s expectant face dropped to confusion as her eyes darted from him to the box to him again.  She seemed baffled and RK worried he might have upset her.  She was incessant, for whatever reason, but it seemed she had a fair bit of control over the neighborhood, it would likely be unfortunate to get on her bad side.  As he considered another form of apology to hopefully lessen whatever reaction she was having, her expression changed again and she looked over at him with uncertainty.

“The, uh, blue mobian, huh?”

“Uh… yes.”

She crossed her arms, appearing to consider his response, shifting her weight to one leg as she stared at the ground.  Eventually she looked up again and smiled, “oh, I see.  I should have asked sooner, sorry for asking so last-minute.  So what’s the present for?  Is his birthday near?”  RK’s brows furrowed in confusion.  Did she not realize it was a Valentine’s gift?  That was the holiday, after all.  But when he explained, she laughed again, “You must be the kind of sweetheart that gets presents for all your work buddies.  How precious.  Did you get something for Itara as well?”

“Well, yes, I got her some brownies.  She likes the ones with the little colorful candies.”

“Good on you.  I suppose I should let you hurry on home, then.  Next time I’ll remember to ask you earlier so you don’t make plans beforehand.  Have a good day, RK,” Lynda waved, turning around and finally heading back to her house, leaving a perturbed and slightly concerned RK behind.  It would apparently be harder to get out of her plans next time.  He briefly considered making daily plans with either Metal or Itara to ensure he always had an out as he turned around and continued back to the house.

As soon as he entered the door, he sighed and dropped his shoulders, “how tiring.”

“Don’t tell me a short run _tires you out now_ , RK,” Metal mocked from the couch, not taking his eyes off the screen as RK shot him a glare.

“No, the _run_ did not tire me out, _Sparky_ ,” that got exactly the response RK was looking for, to which he only grinned and set the long, thin box up against the wall to pull his shoes off.  “I ran into Lynda on my way back.  Or rather, she came after me.  I don’t understand why, but she is _determined_ to bother me as often as possible.  She invited me over for a Valentine’s lunch and only barely accepted my excuse that I already made plans with you.”  Metal narrowed his eye further.

“I don’t trust that human, she’s up to something.”

“You don’t trust anyone.”

“There’s a reason for that.  You should take note.”

RK rolled an eye, picking the box up again and moving over to the couch, sitting down beside him, reaching over and shoving the other bot’s legs off the cushions, gaining him yet another scowl.  “In any case, it wasn’t just an excuse, I was hoping to spend some time with you today so turn your game off for a bit.”

Metal hesitated for a brief moment, looking between RK and the game with reluctance, not wanting to turn it off but eventually doing so.  “What do you want?”

“While I was looking into the holiday for Itara, it occurred to me that it could be used as an opportunity to bond with others.  We haven’t actually done much together in years, centuries if you consider the multiple timelines we’ve all experienced.  Even before everything with Mephiles happened, I was inactive for years, but I did enjoy working with you so long ago.  You’ve likely worked with a number of others, being the first of our series and in use for so much longer, but you’ve always been my best partner.  I want to try and get some of that back, without Robotnik controlling our every move.”

Metal remained silent, studying him, so RK held the box out to him, continuing, “I thought we could start with this.  I’m sorry it took me so long to get ahold of, and it needs a bit of work, but it’s a start.  It shouldn’t be difficult for either of us to get up to our standards and it should help you out a fair bit.”

Still, Metal remained silent, but shifted his position to set the box in his lap, studying it cautiously but then reaching around to snap the tape around it.  The box, itself, was about two feet in length and about six inches in width and height.  It was a thick cardboard wrapped tightly in packing tape and a shipping sticker on one end.  Once Metal had the tape cleared away, he pulled the lid off to reveal a long, slender, shiny metallic arm.  The shoulder and elbow was the same ball joint as his other arm and the material looked flexible and lightweight.  The hand was fully jointed and ended in sharp claws, much like his current hand, though the style was slightly different.

“There’s a guy I work with whose wife is an engineer and they were looking for a way to test a new material.  I told him about your missing arm and she agreed to make it for you as long as I send the results back.  I figured it was a small price to pay for getting you a functional, high quality arm,” he explained, watching Metal pick the arm up and inspect it.

“You told them we were robots?”

“No, I used Itara’s excuse that you were just injured at work and lost an arm.  I told them you had a prosthetic built in once but it was cheap and fell apart so you have the nerve connection already, you just needed the robotic parts.”

“Hm.  Clever.”

The room remained silent for several minutes as Metal studied the arm, testing the weight and balance and material, while RK studied Metal, waiting for his response.  After some time, Metal looked up again, “well, I suppose we should find out whether this engineer is worth anything.”  RK smirked, but nodded and got up, following him down to the lab to get the arm attached.

Once they were down in the lab, RK instructed Metal to get set up on one of the chairs near the computer while he went to grab the tools necessary to connect the arm.  They would have to do a bit of work to get it situated properly, considering both how intricate of a robot Metal Sonic was to begin with, but also the work they did in removing the previous damaged arm.  It would be no quick process and thus RK decided to throw in his secondary idea while he was working to reopen the shoulder for the new ball joint.

He told Metal to hook into the computer, telling him he had more files to transfer and wanted to keep track of the installation.  Once Metal was hooked up, he plugged into the computer, as well, getting a strange look from the other bot, but initiated a file transfer while he continued working on the shoulder.

The new arm was entirely for Metal’s sake, both wanting his fellow robot to have full range of motion again but also hoping it would improve his mood.  The files he was transferring, however, were a number of memories he still held regarding both him… and Itara.  He’d already shared a number of files regarding Itara up to that point, but he hadn’t showed him all of them, for a number of reasons.  He was hoping, by sharing them now, it might convince Metal she was hardly any threat to them and that it was, in fact, thanks to her that the timeline wasn’t destroyed completely.  Because she had that relationship with him and Kipper, her memories caused a rift in Solaris as a whole.  Metal should have remembered that from the fight.

Metal hardly seemed pleased with the attempt at first, realizing what RK was up to again, but stored the memories, nonetheless.  Besides, they weren’t all about Itara, either.  Some of them were memories regarding him.  When he was broken and unable to function, the pieces he had been in.  It was frustrating, realizing he had been so badly damaged, but knowing RK spent so much time and effort repairing him, even putting his own systems at risk to get him back online… well, he was still dysfunctional.  He’d consider thanking them when he was fully repaired.

He glanced down at the new arm, looking between it and the old one, giving it all a good bit of thought.  Suddenly it occurred to him which arm was the new one.  One eye flashing at the realization, he looked at the new arm again, holding it out as soon as he had control over it.  The scar.  His constant reminder of his failure.  It was gone.  The only damage Robotnik refused to let him repair, the lighting scar on his right arm, it had been on the removed arm.  Looking back at RK, he questioned warily, “My other arm, did you find it?”

RK looked up from where he had been working on his shoulder and shook his head, “no, otherwise I would have tried to repair it, rather than just removing the whole thing.  There were a number of parts I just couldn’t find.  I found pieces of your other hand, but the arm was gone.  Why?”  Metal looked forward again, dimming his eye as he thought it over.  So it was gone for good.  That constant reminder was gone.  “Metal?”

He shook his head, turning his optics on again and explained, “No reason.”

RK raised an eyebrow but went back to work.  It was another hour of work before he finally stood back and crossed his arms, “Okay, I think that should about do it.  Test it out and let me know if there are any kinks.  It might be rough from the get-go but as your systems integrate it should get smoother.”

Metal pulled his hand up, curling his fingers and moving his arm out and back in again.  He made a fist, rolled his shoulder, and stretched the arm out, testing every movement and function and ensuring he had full control of it.  Satisfied, he grinned, “finally.”

RK returned the grin, nodding and moving to put the tools back, “congrats, you have two working arms again.  You can challenge Itara to another game of pinball without my help.”  Metal shot him a glare at the comment, getting little more than a side smirk from the warbot.  Once the tools were put back away and the bots disconnected from the computer again, they headed back up to the main house.  Itara would be home from school soon and there were investigations to conduct before she returned.


	13. Trust Issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valentine's is coming to a close and Itara's had less of a fun day than either of the robots...

The room was quiet.  RK was in his reclaimed chair by the wall, watching Metal Sonic, who was lounging on the couch playing his game.  They knew it was only a matter of time before the tiny child would be home from school, and RK dreaded the possibilities of the holiday outcome.  He hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst whenever it came to her.  For the time being, however, he was just happy to see Metal Sonic apparently satisfied with his ability to play more efficiently with both hands.  The new arm hiccupped once in a while, causing him to either press a button he didn’t actually mean to or miss a jump, but for the most part it seemed to be working well enough.

But their quiet time was soon enough brought to an end as they heard a light _slosh, slosh, slosh_ coming up the driveway, followed by a concerning _thud_ and a cry of shock.  Both robots looked up through the window as a frustrated screech echoed out, urging RK out of his chair to check on the little hedgehog.  By the time he reached the door, however, it slammed open and against the wall as a soaking wet, scowling, red-in-the-face Itara stormed her way into the house.

“RK!  I hate e-everything!”

Every visible inch of her fur was soaked through and her uniform, even her backpack, fared no better.  Small snowballs clung to her spines and her shoes sloshed as she kicked them off with some struggle.  Slamming the door shut, she threw her backpack off and glared up at the concerned red robot.  “Th-this holiday is even stupider than I thought!”

RK’s mouth pulled back, he reached down and picked her up, stating, “Let’s get you dried off and you can tell me what happened, alright?”  She huffed angrily, crossing her arms, but said nothing as he headed down the hall to her bedroom.  Metal glanced towards them, smirking, but returned to his game.  He was almost at the end of a level.

Taking her into her room, RK shifted Itara to one arm to grab a pair of warmer pajamas and then headed down to the main bathroom, grabbing a towel from the closet on the way.  He set her down in the bathroom and got a warm bath going for her before asking, “So what happened?  Why are you so wet?  Surely it wasn’t all from just falling outside the door.”

He watched her cheeks puff out as she shimmied out of her wet uniform and, once the water was warm enough, jumped into the bath.  “N-No, it wasn’t just from that one fall,” she stammered, slinking as far into the water as possible while it filled the tub.  RK sat on the edge while he listened, setting her pajamas on the counter.  “I was mad the entire way home so I… the stupid snow tripped me.”  He couldn’t help but smirk at the sudden change in fault halfway through.

“Did something happen at school, then?”

Once again, she slid deeper under the water before answering, looking off to the side and mumbling, “I didn’t get any cards…”  Yeah, that was about what he was expecting.  “N-Not that I care… their st-stupid cards don’t mean anything to me.  I don’t even like any of them, why would I care about some stupid cardboard?  Just because everyone else got one doesn’t mean I care.”

He crossed his arms, leaning back in thought before reaching over to shut the water off once it was full enough.  “It certainly sounds like you care.”

“I don’t!  Why should I?!  Just because that stupid Camilla was mocking me about it and showing off her stupid _pile_ of cards, doesn’t mean I care!  It’s all stupid mortal garbage, anyway.  I’m more important than they’ll ever be and if they don’t know it, that’ll be their own downfall!”

RK hummed softly, considering this.  Camilla again.  If it wasn’t Sceira, it was Camilla, when it came to Itara.  As much as she hated everyone around her, those two seemed to have earned her scorn the most.  Then again, Camilla sounded a bit like a brat.  Not that Itara wasn’t, she caused plenty of trouble, but Camilla sounded like quite the handful, as well.

Itara remained silent in thought, glaring out at the water as she sunk under enough to cover her nose, glad to be in warm water after the freezing walk home.  Watching the snowballs melt and steam in the hot water was somewhat entertaining and offered a brief moment of distraction from her terrible day, but after they dissolved an overwhelming sadness replaced her previous rage.  She blew a couple bubbles in the water before looking up at the contemplative RK again, rising enough to speak, “In any case, I’m just glad the day’s done.  Can I have a cookie after my bath?”

A smirk spread across RK’s face at the mention of a cookie and he shook his head.  One track minded, that child.  “We’ll see,” he answered, watching the frustration come back to her face, “get warmed up and dressed, I’ll go put your uniform through the dryer and see what I can do about your backpack.”

“Uh… speaking of my backpack… can… can you check to make sure my game is in there?”  RK raised an eyebrow as she sunk further again, looking away, “I… couldn’t find it on the train ride home…”

Sighing, he nodded, “I’ll take a look.  You better not have already lost that, Itara.”  She puffed her cheeks in response, but said nothing.  Rolling his eye, he got up and left the bathroom to see about drying everything and looking for the missing game, picking up the uniform on his way out.  He checked the washer to make sure it was empty, figuring he could do a load of laundry while he was at it and threw in some towels and other clothes from the hamper in the hallway.

Heading back out to the living room, he picked the backpack up and looked over it, noticing a side-eyed glance from Metal.  “What?”

“I’d been wondering why the possessed doll kept calling you ‘Momma Bear’… I think I see now.”

RK’s expression dropped at the mention of the doll and his nicknames.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he insisted, taking the backpack to the table to pull everything out of it and see what was damaged and what was salvageable.  The outside of the bag was damp, but the inside seemed mostly untouched.  That was relieving.  What was more concerning, however, was that the missing game was nowhere to be seen.  With Metal returning to his game, RK checked online to see if the bag could be thrown in with the rest of the wash before doing just that.  He then went back to grab Itara’s afterschool snack and set it on the table as the young hedgehog came out of the bathroom, dressed in her pajamas and rubbing off the edges of her spines with the towel.

“RK, can I-?”  She stopped, looking towards Metal, jumping back in shock and staring wide-eyed, “YOU HAVE ARMS!”

Metal glared over at her, but grinned after a moment of thought, pausing his game to mock her, “Shockingly perceptive of you.”  Getting up off the couch, he turned towards her, flexing his new hand as he continued, “As it turns out, I need to test this new arm out to gauge its full potential.  Maybe I should test the sharpness of the claws.”

“RK!”

“Metal.”  RK’s tone went flat and unamused, garnering a glance from Metal as Itara bolted for his side in the dining room entrance.

Metal stood back up straight and studied him, as well as the tiny hedgehog now clung to his pant leg.  RK had his arms crossed and his one functional eye narrowed dangerously towards the other bot, with a small package of brownies in the one non-hook hand.  Standing at his full height, he looked, even to Metal, exactly like a mother bear ready to maul.  Metal didn’t know if he wanted to mock him, or scowl, and instead returned to the couch to pick the controller up.  “I wasn’t going to _hurt_ your tiny child, Momma Bear.”

“Don’t you start on that, too!” RK warned, hearing an echo of snickers from down the hall where Kipper had been ‘resting’ in Itara’s bedroom.  Grunting in annoyance, RK unfolded his arms and turned to Itara, instead, holding the brownies out to her, “here.  I thought I would get you a special snack since its Valentine’s, so now you haven’t gotten nothing today.”  His irritation ebbed ever so slightly as he watched her giant eyes widen and nearly sparkle at the sight of the brownies.  She snatched them up and shot a quick glare towards Metal before happily ripping the plastic off and munching on the side with the most candy pieces first.

While munching on her brownie, she looked towards the table where the contents of her backpack were laid out, frowning again.  “My game wasn’t there?”

“No, it wasn’t.  Not that you were supposed to bring that with you to school in the first place.”  Itara looked away, shoving the rest of her brownie in her mouth as she walked back out of the kitchen, “Itara.”

“Look, I-!”

As she reached the hallway, trying to sneak away from the conversation, however, there was a knock at the door.  Itara debated whether that could be the distraction she needed or not, but decided RK was less likely to yell at her if there was company and rushed to the doorway to answer it.  She welcomed the intrusion for once… at first, but with the reveal of the intruder she was suddenly far less interested.  Simon, the human kid down the street, Lynda’s son and one of Camilla and Sceira’s group, was standing there, still dressed in his school uniform and shuffling awkwardly.

“What do _you_ want?” she all but hissed as RK walked over, eyeing Itara sharply before focusing on Simon again.

“Uh, well,” he stammered, looking over at Itara, then up at the towering red ‘mobian’ behind her, then over to the other mobian eyeing all three of them from the couch.  He looked back and forth between the three of them for a moment before shaking his head, focusing back on Itara, reaching back into his back pocket and pulling a small, purple handheld out.  Itara’s eyes lit up for a brief moment, recognizing her game easily enough, but then grew wary.  “This is yours, right?”

“…It might be,” she muttered, looking away, unsure of the situation.  She knew he played games too, so she didn’t think he’d mock her for playing them, but at the same time she’d apparently lost it somewhere and he might use it against her.  What if he planned to hold it ransom for something?

To her surprise, though, he held it out to her, explaining, “I found it in the stairwell and well, I knew you hung out there pretty often during breaks.”  Itara turned red in the face at the insinuation, but snatched her game up, keeping her eyes off to the side as she held the game close to her.  “Uh, I looked at the game you were playing, to see if I could check to see whose it was and… well, I have the same game on mine.  Did you, uh… maybe wanna add me as a friend and play together some time?”

It was Simon’s turn to go pink in the face when Itara looked over at him, shocked and clearly confused.  She stared wide-eyed for a second before growing suspicious again.  She wasn’t the only one, either, as Metal Sonic’s eyes narrowed at the conversation.  Simon glanced around, trying to alleviate his discomfort under the many gazes, eventually averting his eyes to the sidewalk instead.  They remained silent for some time, Itara questioning the situation, wondering what he was getting at, wondering what would happen if she agreed, glancing towards the black book sitting on the kitchen table but knowing it would be no help, looked to RK, instead.  His eye was glowing, indicating he was thinking it over.  When he noticed her looking up at him, he nodded, motioning towards Simon to give her the go-ahead.

Itara was still unsure, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, but looked over at Simon again, studying him carefully.  He was fidgeting under all the attention.  She’d been around long enough to read body language like that, but that didn’t help her much.  What if he was so uncomfortable because he was plotting and was afraid of getting caught in his lie?  But RK approved.  He didn’t even approve of her dad, but he was giving the ‘go ahead’ to this human kid?  Then again, it was just… playing video games.  That… was harmless, right?

She gave it a moment of further thought before finally sighing, “Sure… I g-guess that’s… fine.”

Simon looked up again, smiling and losing his fidgeting, “Great!  Uh,” he looked back towards his house before returning to her, “Do you, uh… wanna come over now?  I don’t have my game on me at the moment, my mom doesn’t let me take it to school.  We could go play now.”

Once again, Itara grew suspicious, but looked to RK.  She wasn’t sure whether she wanted him to say yes or no, she wasn’t sure about the entire situation.  On the one hand, she didn’t trust this kid any more than she trusted Camilla or Sceira, he was in their group, after all, and he was mocking her as much as Camilla on New Year’s.  But at the same time, she was actually a little excited to go play games with someone.  She only ever played by herself.  But she wouldn’t ever admit that.  If RK said no, it would make staying home and away from people easy, it wouldn’t fall on her to turn down his invitation, not that she cared what he thought, anyway.  But if he said yes… she wasn’t sure what it meant.

After a moment of silent thought, and a glance back towards the table, RK crossed his arms.  “Well, you haven’t finished your homework yet…” he began, and suddenly Itara wanted nothing more than to escape to Simon’s house and play video games.

“She could… do it at my house,” Simon suggested, “My mom always makes me do my homework as soon as I get home, anyway.”

“Well,” RK went silent, considering Lynda and her habits.  Finally, he nodded, “Very well.  Go grab your coat and your boots, since your other shoes are soaking wet, and I’ll get your homework together to bring with you.”  Itara glanced warily at him, but nodded and turned around to grab her stuff while RK returned to the kitchen, “come on in for a moment, Simon.”  He nodded and stepped inside, closing the front door so the cold air stopped coming in, but remained just inside the door, looking around.  He glanced over at Metal, who was still eyeing him cautiously, before looking away quickly to see what game _he_ was playing.

“Uh… that’s a pretty fun game, too,” he commented, clearly uncomfortable under the razor gaze.

Metal glanced towards the TV before scoffing and looking away, “I’m only studying.  I’m not playing for _fun_.”  Simon’s head tilted in confusion but RK shook his head, coming back with Itara’s homework clipped together.

“Ignore him.  Will it be alright with your mom; Itara coming over right now?  Did you ask her if it was alright?”

“Nah, it should be fine, I invite Camilla over all the time, too.”

“Alright, well, let her know I’ll appreciate it if she makes sure Itara does her homework before playing games.  She likes to put it off.”

“Yeah, she never lets me play games before homework so we’ll have to do it, anyway,” Simon frowned, showing the same disinterest in the subject as Itara often did.  RK nodded and handed the clipped together papers over once Itara returned with her coat on and carrying her shoes.

“Very well, then make sure you’re home before… dinner, I suppose,” RK stated, walking them out the door, “thank you for bringing that back, Simon.  I only recently bought that handheld for her and I’d have been upset if she already lost it.”

Itara cringed but Simon grinned up at him, “No problem.”  He looked over at Itara and led the way back down the driveway, “Come on, let’s go get our homework finished so we can play.”  Itara nodded, slowly, and glanced towards RK before following after Simon.  She was still unsure about the situation, and was making careful note of the slush to avoid falling again like she had when she got home, but was secretly looking forward to playing.  She would still be on her guard, though.

Once they were further down the sidewalk, RK closed the door and turned back around, smirking slightly.

“Is it wise to trust the humans so easily?”

RK looked towards Metal Sonic, who was eyeing him suspiciously again.  “I do not trust them easily.  But those ones, at least, have no ill-intentions.”

“How are you so sure?  That Lynda woman is awfully aggressive.  I still find it likely that she’s planning something and you’ve let the small one walk into their den unaccompanied.  Not that I’m concerned about your tiny child, mind you, but she knows more than they could ever imagine.  If she tells them too much--”

“You and Itara are both so overly suspicious.  Trust me, I’ve looked into them.  Lynda is… irritating, sure, but she isn’t dangerous.  I was scanning Simon’s intentions as he spoke, there was no lie in his statements, he only wanted to play games with Itara and I believe it’ll be good for her to socialize with others more.”

“I don’t see why that would ever be beneficial,” Metal scoffed, returning to his game.

“Situational adaptability, Metal Sonic.”  Metal glanced at the larger robot as he walked off, narrowing his eyes slightly, returning to the game.  He had his doubts, but for now he had higher priorities.  “Situational adaptability.”


	14. Permissions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School Trip Arc:  
> Itara finds out about a class trip to Spagonia, the location of the Gaia Manuscripts.

“And remember, you’ll need your parents’ signatures and the permission slips in _before_ the trip to be able to go.  Anyone who forgets to turn the slip in or doesn’t have their parents’ signatures, both parents for those of you it’s applicable to, will be remaining here and will be assigned make-up work instead of going.”

Itara’s ears flattened against her head as her homeroom teacher passed the slips out to the class, which erupted into murmured excitement.  As soon as the teacher explained about the apparent upcoming school trip, she’d already decided she didn’t want to go.  An entire four days with nothing but her classmates and teachers in potentially unfamiliar locations, likely subjected to a series of ‘team’ projects or group activities sounded exactly like the opposite of fun to her.  She barely tolerated them all for the length of a school day, being unable to escape back home for four days sounded like downright torture.

But then the teacher announced where they were going and a hint of familiarity sparked her sudden interest.  It took her a moment to remember, since it was a city she only briefly glanced by in her research into the other Gods, but with a name like _Spagonia_ , it clicked soon enough and she changed her mind.  To everyone else, Spagonia was an Art Studies hotspot and the location of a major university.  It was a notable cultural location and thus a popular tourist spot.  But more importantly to her, in addition to its artistic focus, the University studied and held a number of ancient artifacts and amongst them were the Gaia Manuscripts: a series of supposedly prophetic books and articles relating to the rise and fall, sleep and waking, of the ancient deities known as Dark and Light Gaia.

It was an opportunity to research what was happening with the Gods that she couldn’t pass up.  She would just have to escape from group activities once she got there, but if she utilized Kipper properly, maybe even suggested taking a trip to the University, itself, it would be easy enough.  Well, supposedly.  She couldn’t be sure and she cursed her lack of powers once again for not being able to check the most efficient way to look into the scripts, but she was confident she could still figure it out.  With some sneaky help.

Waiting until the teacher neared her desk to hand the slip to her, she asked, in as quiet of a voice as possible, “Wh-where are we… going during this t-trip?”

“Were you not listening, Itara?  We’re going to the city of Spa-”

“Yes, no, I kn-know that.  I meant where _in the city_ are we going?”

“Oh.  Well, we’ll discuss that in a moment.”  Itara’s lip pulled back, but she nodded and let the teacher continue.  Once all the permission slips were handed out and the teacher returned to her podium, the conversation continued as Itara hoped it might.  “Remember, get those signed.  Don’t delay.  Now, while we’ve got the location and some major spots we’ve already planned to look at, if any of you know of any specific spots or locations you’d like to visit, we’re still taking suggestions to see what we can work into the schedule.  Have any of you ever been to Spagonia before?”

A couple of hands went up around the room, but not many in the class of sixty-odd students seemed to know anything about it.  Amongst them, Itara’s hand had gone up the fastest.  It wasn’t often she was overly thrilled about taking part in school activities, but this was an exception.  Once the teacher acknowledged her, she offered her suggestion about the University, getting strange looks from some of her classmates which she quickly ignored.  They were in third grade, why would they be visiting a University so soon?  But that wasn’t her concern.

“Well, that’s certainly an interesting suggestion,” the teacher began, writing it on a notepad on her desk, “but I’ll pass it along.  It’s good to see your interest in a higher education, Itara.”  Itara almost scoffed at how little anyone knew, but kept it to herself.  She wouldn’t mind her classmates thinking she was just so far ahead of them that she was already considering colleges.

The rest of the class gave their thoughts and ideas about the trip, mostly boiling down to restaurants and amusement parks, before they fell back into the usual quiet clamor of individual conversations.  There was noticeably more conversation today due to the trip announcement, but Itara still did her best to ignore it and focus on her own interests.  She’d never actually read the Gaia Manuscripts before, despite all her travelling and research, it had never been necessary before.  She learned what she needed to about the other Gods, but seeing as both were inactive at the height of her roaming and would be for some time still, she hadn’t looked too deeply.  If she could get the Manuscripts, though, she might find something useful for the current activations.

Once class ended and the students were free to escape for the day, Itara shoved the permission slip into her backpack and headed out behind everyone as per usual.  The snow was finally starting to melt, with no new snow being added to it, but it meant there was more slush than anything.  Spring was on its way, but with it came a flood that covered every inch the snow didn’t.  At least with the temperature on the rise it was less likely to turn to straight ice, but there were still considerable patches in the mornings and later at night when the temperature dropped again.  Which meant Itara slipped less on her way out, but practically needed an icepick on her way _in_.

But she wasn’t concerned with the snow and ice and wetness today.  Today she was focused on Spagonia battle plans.  She was so focused in on her future plans that the world around her nearly disappeared and thus brought her jolting back out of her head when she suddenly smacked into something that knocked her clean back and onto the wet path.  Giving out a cry of shock, and shuddering at the freezing water, she glared up at the offending object before her face twisted into confusion seeing Simon staring worriedly down at her.  Unfortunately, both Sceira and Camilla were standing just behind him, Sceira staring off as usual but Camilla snickering at her misfortune.

“Are you okay?” Simon questioned frowning and holding a hand out to help her up.

Itara’s face reddened in embarrassment, glaring off and pushing herself up, ignoring Simon’s hand.  “I’m f-fine,” she muttered, avoiding eye contact with all three of them.

“You should pay attention to where you’re going, Clumsy,” Camilla chided, grinning.

“Camilla, names aren’t necessary,” Sceira scolded, “but Itara you really should be paying more attention to your surroundings.  It’s-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it!  J-jeez,” Itara scoffed, fixing her backpack and shoving past all three of them to continue out the gate, “maybe people should just learn to stay out of my way.”  She heard an indignant huff from Sceira, but the laugh from Camilla only angered her further. Simon said nothing either way.  Unfortunately, her apparent need to bump into things today wasn’t quite at the end as she went head-first into something much harder, but felt herself swiped up before she fell back onto the wet ground again.  Opening one clenched eye, she looked up at RK, who was eyeing her back curiously.  “Wh-What?”

“What was that all about?”

“N… Nothing!  What are you doing here, anyway?”

“The school asked me to come pick you up,” he explained, motioning towards the collection of parents waiting near the front gate.  Lynda was standing just beside him, smiling happily and waved once she looked at her.  “With the increase in attacks lately, I guess the school didn’t want students walking home alone and suggested any parents capable of picking their kids up do so.”  He looked towards Lynda again, and then over at Susan, who was talking with the on-duty teacher, “though, I wonder if it’s necessary for all three of us to come when you three live on the same block.  It should theoretically be enough for one to accompany the three of you, I believe.”

“Oh,” Lynda chimed in, “I hadn’t even thought about that.  I suppose you’re right.”

Simon and Camilla reached the gate, glancing around at the parents, as well, while Sceira walked to one of the few parents that showed up daily.  Itara huffed, crossing her arms and getting comfortable in RK’s arms, “whatever, let’s just go home.  I’m wet.”

“Why are you wet again?”

“None of your business!  Let’s just go!”

RK rolled his eyes, but walked towards the train station, Lynda and Simon following close behind.  Camilla and Susan remained behind to continue talking with the teacher at the gate.  Then again, Susan was head of the PTA so it wasn’t uncommon to see her at the school talking with the teachers after it got out.

The walk to the train station was relatively quiet until Lynda tried sparking some conversation between the four of them.  “So, how was school today?  Anything interesting happen?  I’m glad you had the free time to come pick Itara up, RK.  I feel much safer with such a big, strong mobian around,” she beamed over at him, but RK looked off in another direction, wanting to avoid that conversation completely.  If a monster did actually attack on their way home and it came to a fight, he would be more concerned by what it would likely give away rather than any actual danger.

“Nothing really,” Simon shrugged, “just the usual pre-Spring Break test prep.”

“Oh that’s right, Spring Break is coming up, isn’t it,” Lynda continued, looking up in thought before smiling over at RK and Itara, “any big plans for the week off?”

“It’s… in the planning process,” RK responded.  They didn’t actually have anything at the moment, but if he told her that he had a sneaking suspicion she might try to plan something for them and he had no interest whatsoever.

“Um… I… have a t-trip… before the break,” Itara added quietly, getting the attention of all three.  “A four-day trip to a nearby city for my whole class.”

“Oh!  Well that certainly sounds fun!”

“What do you need for this trip?” RK questioned looking down at her as the train took off from the station.

“I have a paper for it.  I think… you have to sign it?  You have to get parent signatures but… well…”  RK nodded and the conversation dropped for a short while.  It was Simon who picked it back up this time, though.

“So you’re gonna be gone for four days, then?”

Itara looked down at him curiously, shifting her position to see him better as she nodded, “We’re going to be leaving Wednesday morning and coming back Saturday evening.  I don’t know where we’re going to stay, though.”  But then she remembered that she was still mad at him for earlier and narrowed her eyes, looking away again, a motion that didn’t go unseen by any of them.  Simon’s eyes widened before he looked away, sulking.  Lynda gave them both a look of concern while RK raised an eyebrow at Itara.  When RK tried to get an explanation out of her, though, she only huffed, “I’m not mad.  I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Instead of trying to prod her further, Lynda instead turned to Simon to ask about it.  Simon explained that she’d knocked into him on her way out and fell in a puddle.  Itara loudly huffed at his explanation, but reddened further when he explained that Camilla was making fun of her for it.

“Camilla again,” RK noted, studying Itara’s face.

“Susan insists she’s such a little angel, but honestly, they’re both kind of brats,” Lynda added, glancing around before leaning over and whispering to RK, “That woman is on such a high horse all the time.  Camilla can do no wrong but every other kid is so inferior, it really gets on my nerves.  Which is why I’ve been trying to dethrone her from head of the PTA this year,” she grinned a bit viciously, “I’m not the only mom she drives mad with her holier-than-thou shtick.  It’ll be funny to see the look on her face when she loses her throne.”

RK raised an eyebrow at her, unsure how much he wanted to do with any of this.  Susan was certainly standoffish and Camilla always seemed to be causing problems for Itara, but he thought it best to avoid them as much as possible.  He knew very little of this PTA thing, only knowing it was some system built by parents and teachers to keep track of students and their education.  Lynda had asked him to join it once before, after the New Year’s party, but he quickly turned it down.  From what he had seen thus far it was a cutthroat world not even he was prepared for.  Especially since they didn’t seem to settle their differences with fists.

The train ride fell to silence once again until they were nearly back to the neighborhood.  Itara had pulled her game from her backpack at some point and played quietly, but stopped once their stop neared and looked around.  She was still frustrated with earlier, causing her to not want to talk to anyone, especially Simon, but sighed in annoyance once they got off the train.  “Hey.”  RK looked at her first, but realizing her focus was elsewhere, looked to the kid she was actually talking to.

It took Simon a moment to realize he was the one her biting attention was on, but looked up curiously once he did.  Itara waved her game lazily to motion towards it, stating, “Check your stupid messages when you get home.  I sent you something.”  Simon blinked but beamed at the realization and nodded.

“Yeah, sure.  Was it for that medal?”

“It might be.”

RK looked back and forth between the two, wondering what they were talking about, but was more curious about Itara’s tone.  She still sounded annoyed, despite what she was actually saying.  It was giving off mixed signals.  He would have to ask her about it once they returned home.

“You bring your games to school?” Lynda questioned, eyeing the little girl who had returned to said game.  Itara only glanced up and nodded, saying nothing, and prompted Lynda to look to RK.

“She does it whether I tell her not to or not,” he shrugged, “it’ll be her own fault if she loses it and she knows that.  She already almost lost it once.”

“I need something to do on my way home and at lunch,” Itara growled, not taking her eyes off the screen.

“Shouldn’t you be _eating_ at lunch?”

“I do.  I eat and play my games.”

“And the lunch duty just lets you sit there playing video games?”

Itara turned a bit red, looking off to the side, and mumbling, “I don’t stay in the cafeteria at lunch.  Not that it’s anyone’s business.  I prefer being alone.”

Once again, Lynda turned an eye on RK, who questioned the situation.  Was it bad for her to spend time alone at lunch?  He wouldn’t mind her spending more time with her classmates and at least _trying_ to make friends, but he never thought to question her about how she spent her lunch hours.  As far as he had read, as long as she ate her lunch she was fine, wasn’t she?  Was there more to it?  He would talk to her about it once they got home.  For now, he shrugged and continued on down the sidewalk.  There was plenty Lynda didn’t know about them and so he couldn’t take all her advice and strange looks seriously, but if this was something to consider, he would do it after more research.

They parted ways at Lynda’s house, Simon calling to Itara that he’d be online once he finished his homework if she wanted to play again later and Itara giving a half-hearted wave of agreement as they walked on.  Once it was just the two of them again, she sighed and slunk further against RK, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.

“Did you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

He left it at that until they reached the house, setting her down again once they were inside and looking over to the couch where Metal Sonic was still lounging about.  RK had picked up a new game for him relatively recently after the blue bot complained that he’d ‘learned’ all he could from his current one.  Though now he couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them were playing too much nowadays.  Maybe he should get them all out of the house again soon.  Metal barely even glanced up once they entered, to which RK crossed his arms and stated, “I may need you to pick Itara up for me tomorrow.”

“Why should I do that, exactly?”  Both Itara and Metal eyed him warily at the statement, Itara dropping her backpack and kicking her shoes off while Metal stared at him over the arm of the couch.

“The number of monsters appearing has risen considerably and the school doesn’t want the kids walking home on their own if they can prevent it but I’ll be at work when she gets off tomorrow.”

“I don’t see how this concerns _me_ ,” Metal scoffed, returning to his game, “I could care less about your tiny child or her monsters.”

“I don’t need anyone to walk me home, RK,” Itara chimed in, narrowing her eyes towards Metal, “especially not _him_.  I’ll be fine, it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with the monsters like everyone else.”

“While that may be the case,” RK continued, walking down the hallway to grab a towel for Itara to dry off again, “I’d rather not chance it.  Just because you know them, doesn’t mean they’ll recognize you and even then, there’s nothing guaranteeing they wouldn’t attack you anyway.  Both the Biter and the Nightmare before tried to attack.  I’d rather be safe.  In addition to that,” he continued, returning to the living room, handing the towel to Itara, and moving in-between Metal Sonic and the TV, getting a scowl from the other bot, “ _you_ have barely moved from this couch for a week.  When was the last time you even went downstairs to charge or run a system scan?  Your systems are still malfunctioning, we need to keep a better eye on them.”

While Itara huffed and went to her room to change out of her uniform, Metal Sonic eyed the taller red robot with a white-hot piercing gaze.  “I am perfectly capable of taking care of my systems on my own, Robot Knuckles, I do not need you to tell me what to do,” his tone was as dangerous as the look he was receiving in return.

“Then answer my question, when was your last scan?”

Metal Sonic remained silent, checking the date and time of his last system scan and compared it to the day’s date.  Realizing it had been _a few days_ , he continued to remain silent.  Somehow, he managed to lose track of time.  Now that he was looking into it, his energy levels were surprisingly low, that explained a couple things.  But he wasn’t going to dignify RK’s _mothering_ with that response.  Instead, he simply scoffed and looked away, “I am perfectly functional, thank you.  Go mother your hedgehog, not me.”

RK rolled his eye, figuring that was all the answer he needed and moved around the side of the couch.  For all of a split second, Metal Sonic believed he had won the argument and was about to return to his game… until RK grabbed him around the waist and hoisted him up onto his shoulder.

“Robot Knuckles you put me down this instant!”

“I’ll put you down in the lab, at the charging station, where you’re going to stay until you do what you need to.  Or I’ll break your legs back off.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

There was a moment of silence as Metal Sonic debated the validity of RK’s threat, but knew easily enough RK had never been one for empty threats.  It was infuriating, but for the sake of his physical well-being, it was best to remain silent for the time being.  Besides, he needed the charge, anyway.  But RK was fooling himself if he thought the argument was over just because he was going to go charge.  If anything a charge and scan would just give him more energy later to continue this.

While he was getting hooked up to the charging station and computer, RK remaining nearby to verify that it got done, the tiny hedgehog ventured down to the lab with a packet of papers and the possessed doll wrapped up in her arms.  She glanced towards Metal, who scowled back at her, before returning her attention to RK.

“Here… these are the papers we got for the trip,” she explained, holding the packet out to him when he turned towards her.  “You have to sign them so I can go… I think.  I mean… we’re supposed to get… our parents to sign them but… you’re…”  She trailed off, looking down before shaking her head, “anyway, I have to get those signed and turned back in before we leave.”

“What trip?” Metal questioned, though hardly sounded interested in the answer.

RK took the papers and looked over them, “Itara’s class is going on a school field trip to Spagonia.  I’m not sure what all it entails, though.”  Turning back towards the computer, he sat down at the desk chair and pulled up an extra window to look into what exactly a school trip was.  After a few minutes of research, he looked to the papers again, “It seems like a fairly decent opportunity to get closer to your classmates, at the very least.”

Itara scoffed, explaining, “That’s not why I want to go.”

“Why _would_ you want to go in the first place?” Metal spoke up again, “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love nothing more than to get rid of you for a full four days, if not longer.  But this sounds like a waste of time and an opportunity for traps.  The school doesn’t even want you walking home on your own but they’re fine sending you off on trips?”

RK and Itara both looked towards them, Kipper having ‘woken up’ at the sound of the trip and floated over to RK to take a look at the papers, himself.  “Sounds more like a prime opportunity for _tricks_ and _fun_ to me,” the doll grinned, getting shoved off RK’s shoulder by the annoyed robot.

“They’ll be under constant supervision throughout the trip, from what I can tell,” RK explained, “I assume they would have plans in place if anything dangerous happens, but perhaps I should look more into that, just in case.”

“You’re all missing the point,” Itara sighed, waving to the papers, “I don’t care about the trip, itself, and I certainly don’t care about spending more time with my classmates, what I’m interested in is the _location_.  Spagonia is the location of the _Gaia Manuscripts_.  I can look into the other Gods more, maybe find a clue about what’s going on!  Since monsters from both Solaris and Gaia have been attacking, and I already know everything there is to know about Solaris, it might be helpful to look into Gaia.  Maybe even Chaos at some point.  _That’s_ why I want to go.”

RK remained silent, taking this into consideration, suddenly unsure about the trip if that was Itara’s true intention.  He already knew the lengths she would go for Solaris, and it was unlikely he would be able to accompany her on this trip.  Without anyone else there that knew of her connection to the Gods, and her true intentions for the trip, it could be dangerous to let her go, after all.  Looking through the papers once more, checking over all the details carefully and wondering how to keep Itara safest if he let her go, he noticed a line towards the back, near the signature lines, giving a number to call if there were any further questions… or any parents interested in chaperoning along with the teachers.

After a moment of thought, he got back up and headed for the stairs, commanding the other three to stay downstairs while he checked on something.  He had an idea, but he would need to get more information first.  Itara and Metal both eyed him suspiciously as he walked off before returning their gazes to one another.

“I still don’t understand why you want to go in the first place.  It’s not like you can’t visit these places on your own, with RK even.  It’d be less dangerous than going on some school-based trip.  Not that I care about your safety, but you know too much about us.  You getting into the wrong hands is just as dangerous as us getting found by Robotnik.”

Itara waved a hand, disinterested in his concerns, “It’s not like anyone even knows who I am in the first place.  If anything happened to me, I assure you, it would only benefit you.  Not that I intend to let anything happen in the first place.  I’m going to find those Manuscripts, maybe even find someone who knows more about Gaia and his monsters, and I’ll return with more information than _you’ll ever have_.”  She grinned over at him, getting a scowl in return.

“In that case, I hope you’re eaten by one of those Nightmares this time and RK can be free from your incessant whining.”

“Don’t forget I helped fix you, you know!  I sacrificed my laptop just so you could short our entire base before we moved here!”

“Tch, all of the important repairs were done by RK, don’t expect gratitude from me, tiny organic.”

“I’m not that small!”

Kipper cackled at the back and forth, getting comfortable against the computer desk before deciding he wanted to know what RK was up to.  Melting into the keyboard while the argument continued, he appeared back upstairs where RK was standing in the kitchen, apparently on the phone with someone.

“Whatcha doin’, Mama Bear?”

“None of your concern.  Go make sure Itara and Metal stay downstairs for a little while,” RK waved him away, but as the doll shrugged and floated towards the hallway, he called out, “and Kipper, I already know what you’re planning.  Don’t you dare cause trouble on Itara’s trip.”

“ _What_?  I would _never_ ,” the doll grinned widely, getting a narrowed eye, before continuing back downstairs.  There was fun to be had soon.  He couldn’t wait.


	15. School Trip Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school trip has arrived... and RK is the only one happy about it.

“Okay children, now remember the groups you’ve been assigned and don’t stray or cause problems.  Listen to the teachers and chaperones at all times and behave yourselves.  Those of you taking separate cars instead of the bus, make sure your driver has the map packets we’ve handed out.”  The school’s headmaster continued instructing the field of students lined up around the parking lot, waiting enthusiastically to file into the bus and cars, while a small handful of parents stood around the edges waiting to take off.  Some chatted amongst themselves, some were looking over the aforementioned maps to get an idea of where they were going.  Two, however, were standing as far back from the others as possible, having a silent argument.

No words were spoken out loud, but as red and green eyes glowed and a scowl spread across one of their faces, an already heated argument only worsened at the mention of separate cars having been an option.  When the children were finally dismissed to group up and get on their way, an uncertain burgundy hedgehog shifted her backpack, grabbed her brand new little blue suitcase, and edged her way towards the two silently fuming mobians.  While excited chatter exploded out from the rest of her class, she pressed her lips into a hard line as she studied the two.  When they didn’t notice her, she gave a small cough to get their attention, gaining a scowl so deadly from one that it nearly toppled her.

“Come on, Metal, it won’t be _that_ bad,” RK finally spoke up, out loud, crouching down to check that Itara had everything she needed before she set off.

“Then why don’t _you_ go?!” the furious blue bot fumed, throwing clawed hands in the air.

“I told you, I’m working,” RK waved with a calm nonchalance.  Standing back up, he turned to the other bot again, explaining, “But I need someone to watch over Itara and make sure she doesn’t try anything drastic to get her hands on those manuscripts.  She can be an unstoppable force sometimes for someone so small and no one at this school is equipped to deal with that.”

“Hey!  Who are you calling small?!” Itara huffed, joining Metal’s sentiment about the situation.  She didn’t want him going with her any more than he did.

“You, but that’s beside the point,” RK responded, looking between them and resisting a smirk.  For some reason, it was actually satisfying seeing them both so displeased about his decision.  “In any case, the decision is already made and they’re getting set up to leave so you’d best be on your way.  Itara, don’t do anything dangerous, and Metal don’t start any fights.  I expect you both back home by Saturday evening, in one piece, with no large organization of any manner chasing after either of you.  Understand?”

Itara huffed at the insinuation, crossing her arms and looking away, while Metal kept his glare, “And what if I refuse?”

“You already know my answer to that.”

There was a moment of silence, RK allowing his unspoken threat to sit, watching Metal Sonic’s eyes narrow dangerously.  It wasn’t until the head teacher gave last call for the bus that the silence finally broke.  Metal Sonic growled and turned on his heel, towards the bus, and stated, “I’m not going to protect your tiny child, Robot Knuckles.  I’m only going because there are matters of interest to me in the other cities.  Don’t expect me to babysit.”

RK could no longer resist the smirk, but nodded and let it go, turning to Itara, who was staring after Metal Sonic with suspicion.  “You too, Itara, best get a move on, you don’t want to miss the trip.  Besides, I need someone to make sure Metal doesn’t attack anyone.”

Itara turned to him with an eyebrow rose, “And you expect _me_ to do _what_ , exactly?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.  Now, off you go.  Have fun and don’t get lost or separated from the others, alright?  And keep Kipper in check, I know he’s hiding in your backpack.”  Once again, he received an incredulous look for the instruction, but he shook his head, reached down to pat hers, and shooed her off towards the bus.  She hesitated only a moment before finally turning around, waving back to him, and running off towards the bus, catching up with Metal Sonic at the door.

RK gave them both a wave before they got on the bus, mentally grinning at the scowl again.  He would be worried about all three of them for the duration of the trip, knowing their natures for trouble, but would also look forward to the four days of silence in the house.  He hadn’t actually had that much alone time since the original timeline and his memories of that were vague at best considering they weren’t ones Itara could fill back in.

Once on the bus, both Itara and Metal Sonic looked for the emptiest spots and mentally cringed when there was only the one.  _Directly in the middle of the bus_.  Huffing silently, Itara stared up at him once they reached it, wanting to sit on the outside but only received another scowl in response.  When neither made a move towards the seat, Metal picked her up by the back of the shirt and dropped her on the inside, sitting at the far edge of the outside, crossing his arms.  Itara silently cursed him for it, but fidgeted out of her backpack and looked for a spot to put her suitcase as the teacher at the front took a quick head count so they could get going.

“And I was _so_ looking forward to getting rid of you for four days,” Metal hissed, side-eyeing her.

Itara kicked her suitcase further under the seat, glaring up at him, “I’m not exactly happy about you coming, either.  I would rather have come alone.  You’re not stopping me from getting those manuscripts, though.  I don’t care what RK says.”

Leaning back against the seat, Metal went into silent consideration before grinning over at her, “You know, just as payback for all of this, maybe I just _will_ make sure you don’t get anywhere near them.  Just to make your life half as miserable as mine.”

Itara hissed and turned fully towards him, pointing, “Don’t get in my way, _Sparky_!  I don’t care what you do during this trip, but if you get in my way I’ll… I’ll-!”  Her cheeks puffed and her face reddened in frustration when she couldn’t come up with anything, getting another grin from the bot.

“You’ll… what?  When have you _ever_ been able to stop me?  You couldn’t stop me _with_ your powers, what makes you think you can do anything now?”  Her face only reddened further as she stuttered and stammered, looking for a retort.  When she found none, she reached out to punch him, though regretted her decision as soon as she made contact.  Wincing, her ears flattened at his mocking laughter while she slumped back into her seat, glaring out the window as she rubbed her fist.  “Foolish child.”

“I hope you get struck by lightning,” she mumbled, getting a scoff in response.

“As if that would even do anything to me-”

“Hey what are you guys talking about?”

Itara and Metal both looked back towards the two other children that were hoisted up in their seats and leaning forward to peer over the backs of their seats at them.  One was a human girl and the other a mobian boy, neither of which Itara had ever spoken to but recognized them from her math class easily enough.

“None of your concern,” Metal hissed, glaring back at them, “mind your business.”

“Tch, rude… not our fault you were talking so loud,” the human girl pouted, glaring back while the mobian stared him down, seeming suddenly unsure about the strange, taller mobian in the seat in front of him.  Before his friend could continue, he pulled her back into their seat, whispering his suspicions and hoping to change the subject to avoid further conflict.  Something about the red-eyed hedgehog made him uneasy.

Itara watched them both carefully out of the corner of her eye, noting the other mobian’s response to Metal Sonic and waved him down, as well.  “Be careful what you mention around others, Sparky.  Humans aren’t likely to recognize you, but mobians might.  Unlike RK, you were active for a while,” she whispered.  Metal raised an eyebrow in response, but only scoffed once he thought it over.  Not that he was necessarily concerned with a bunch of _third graders_ recognizing him, but there were the few other parents to worry about, he supposed.  They were more likely to cause a ruckus and draw attention he didn’t need.

What was the point of being free from Robotnik if he had to constantly live in hiding?  Well, it was at least better than being told what to do by the doctor, but only barely.  Mentally sighing, he leaned back against the seat again, staring off in thought.  He was out of range of RK’s limited com-unit now so he couldn’t even yell at the other bot about the situation anymore.

He would just do research on their destination; see how it changed from his existing records about it.  Perhaps the time traveler could fill him in further.  Looking over at the young hedgehog again, he watched as she fidgeted in her seat and found a comfortable way to curl in on herself against the side.  Before he had a chance to either ask or mock her, however, his attention was grabbed by yet another small child, this time from the ones in front of them.  They’d turned around in their seats and were peering over the tops of them at him and Itara.  Mentally sighing in frustration, he turned a glare towards them both, “what do you want?”  Itara looked up from her ball to see who he was talking to, following his eyesight to the seats in front of them but saying nothing.

“Are you Itara’s uncle, too?”

This, unfortunately, caught the attention of the two behind them again and four sets of eyes were now on both Metal Sonic and Itara while they each questioned the answer silently.  Itara’s ears perked, her face reddening with all the attention as her eyes slid away from everyone.  She had no idea how to respond to that, anyway, she’d never considered what Metal Sonic was supposed to ‘be’ besides a nuisance.  She knew most her class thought RK was her uncle, considering they also unfortunately knew about the hedgehogs in the mansion, as well.  But what _did_ that make Metal Sonic?  Was he even anything?

Her thoughts slid back to the same question she’d asked herself before.  Technically, Metal Sonic was just as responsible for her creation as Mephiles… he was the one who broke off the shard of Mephiles’ power from the scepter and transferred it to a physical body.  He was the reason she existed in the first place.  Even though her body now was a creation of Solaris’ after the reset, Metal Sonic was her original creator, long before she ever met RK, or even Mephiles.

As she debated all this, however, Metal Sonic just rose an eyebrow and questioned, “What business is this of yours, child?”

The other kids looked uneasy, all but the human girl from before, who glared at the repeating question.  She seemed to take the initiative to get the answers the others were apparently searching for, “Because Itara’s shown up with three different guardians before you.  We heard her parents died, so who are you?”  Itara cringed at the mention of her ‘parents’, looking away out the window again.  She didn’t want to talk about them, she didn’t even want to hear about them.

“I heard the echidna that shows up to pick her up sometimes is her uncle that’s taking care of her now,” one the others chimed in, looking to Itara, specifically, “is he on your mom or dad’s side?”  Itara only curled into herself further.  She didn’t want to talk about this.

“Wait, but he’s an echidna, and both her parents were hedgehogs, I saw them when they were getting the tour around the school,” the other kid in front of them exclaimed, looking to Metal, “you’re a hedgehog, though, right?  Are you actually her uncle?  Are you and the echidna married?  How come your fur color doesn’t match?  Your fur is blue… kinda like-”

Itara shot up and the general description of a frantic screech escaped as she threw her hands up at the other kid to stop him before he could finish his sentence, knowing where it was going.  That was not an avenue they wanted to go down on a loaded bus full of mortals.  The other kids gave her a strange look, but she only glanced towards Metal, already seeing the building fury.  When a giggle mumbled out from her backpack sitting on the floor beside her, she gave it a swift kick and turned her attention back to the kids, “I-I-It’s n-none of your b-business!”  Unfortunately, even with her powers of time travel and without the help of her book, she knew that being mysterious about it all would only spark further curiosity and start rumors she didn’t want to deal with.  She would have to come up with a satisfyingly mundane answer to stave them off _now_.

“But if you _must_ know,” she huffed, crossing her arms, trying to buy time to think.  She glanced between the window and Metal Sonic, who was glaring her down, she could see the light twitch in his claws and mentally cringed.  All eyes were on her as she struggled and stammered through a response, running down several possible avenues so far as she could see without her powers, and finally sighed.

“Maybe he and the echidna are dating,” one of the kids interjected before she could decide on a proper response.  It was a strange suggestion, to both Itara and Metal, but maybe she could work with it.

“Y-Yes, fine, you’re right.  Sparky is my… uncle’s boyfriend,” she stammered, looking almost sheepishly towards Metal to see his reaction.  He narrowed his eyes further for a brief moment at the hated nickname, but then switched to a look of suspicion.  Boyfriend?

“What exactly do you mean by this?” Metal hissed, lowering his voice ever so slightly.

While the other kids looked between themselves, Itara gave a small, uncertain laugh and waved a hand, “Y-You know, boyfriend, partner, companion.  You guys have been partners longer than even I’ve been around, right?”  The only reason she knew the term better than he did was because she went to school with older kids and some of the upperclassmen talked about dating _often_.   In fact, even just in her robotics class, there was one girl _always_ talking about what she and her boyfriend did during the weekend.  Itara had ignored it for the most part, having no idea what she was talking about at first, but she was a louder classmate and Itara picked up on details after hearing about it for so long.

There was a small echo of ‘oohs’ around their part of the bus, making Itara flush up further and Metal stare off, uncertain of the titles.  Now that he was thinking about it, RK had said something similar during that New Year’s party.  Well, they had worked together for quite some time before RK was put out of commission and then went rogue.  He supposed ‘partner’ was an accurate enough description… but something about ‘boyfriend’ made him wary.  For one, they were robots, they didn’t technically have genders.  They only assumed pronouns of one or the other based on their organic counterparts.  Secondly, Metal Sonic had no need for ‘friends’.  While RK was likely the closest to that he would ever have, he preferred ‘battle partner’.

“So you’ve been dating for a long time?” one of the kids spoke up again, returning his attention back to the small gathered crowd of eyes, “are you going to get married someday then?  How come you aren’t yet?”  Itara’s face only reddened further, more from second-hand embarrassment for Metal than anything.  She knew this was all going over his head entirely and while she wanted _so_ badly to laugh at him, she was still uncomfortable with all the attention it had drawn.  Her ‘solution’ almost seemed to backfire as it drew even more attention from the curious elementary school kids now suddenly wanting to pry into the love affairs of a clueless robot.

“ _Married_?” Metal Sonic questioned, overly aware of the sudden influx of attention and shot another accusatory glare at Itara.  Just what was she trying to pull here?  Then again, judging by the look on her face, he had a sneaking suspicion this was not the outcome she was originally searching for.

“Are you and the echidna going to adopt Itara when you do?  Since she doesn’t have parents?  You already take care of her, right?  Do you all live together?  I heard Itara lives down the street from Camilla, do you live there, too?”

At this point, neither Metal nor Itara knew how to respond to the sudden barrage of questions coming their way from all sides and it was all Itara could do to keep Metal from exploding at all of them.  As much as she wished everyone would leave them alone, letting a killer robot loose on a full bus would absolutely draw attention they couldn’t handle.  Instead, she concocted her best lies to satiate their curiosity to hopefully keep them from wanting to know more.  She tried to keep their lives sounding as mundane as possible and everything as basic and natural as she could, but even she still struggled with the idea of ‘normal everyday life’ and some of her explanations got the exact opposite  reaction that she wanted.

As much as she loathed the fact that she was stuck in a class with actual kids, it didn’t often affect her everyday life.  She didn’t associate with most of her class, the most infuriating part was usually just the excessively easy work.  But never had she seen a more apparent display of the mental age difference than during the four hour drive to Spagonia.  For the most part, because she went to a higher end school, her classmates, kids as they were, were usually on the quieter, more composed side.  But during that bus ride, with their curiosity sparked and being obviously bored from having to sit with nothing to do for so long, they bombarded her and Metal Sonic with question after question, wanting to know every little detail they could get.  Some even flew off into introspections of their own, making wild accusations about their lives that were somehow more ridiculous than the reality of their situation.  It briefly reminded Itara of Kelly… but she, luckily or unluckily, had no time to dwell on it before more questions came barreling in.

By the time the bus finally reached the first destination and came to a stop, Itara and Metal Sonic couldn’t escape it fast enough.  Metal barely waited long enough for the bus driver to swing the door open before he darted right out of it and as far from the bus as possible while staying within sight of it.  Their first stop was the hotel they would be staying at for the duration of the four days and Metal was already waiting by the door by the time even the teacher had stood up to talk to everyone about the plans.

The kids around Itara—who was cursing Metal for his ability to escape so easily and yet left her behind—exclaimed in shock at his speed, looking between the now-empty seat and the blue mobian tapping his foot near the hotel doors.

“Whoa, he’s fast!” One of the kids exclaimed while the rest of the bus gathered their items and the teacher instructed everyone to stay with their groups.

“Like Sonic!” Another of the kids added, getting another cringe from Itara.  At least he was far enough away that he likely didn’t hear what she had been trying so hard to avoid the entire trip over.  Metal’s appearance had changed drastically over the years since his first creation, much like RK’s, he’d kept many of his Neo Metal designs in later upgrades… but it didn’t make the comparison any less infuriating for the blue bot.  Despite being designed specifically as a counter to Sonic, or perhaps because of that, Metal Sonic would always hate being compared to the blue hedgehog and Itara knew it well enough.

“Look, guys,” Itara stammered, trying to get their attention one last time before running away in a similar manner, “Don’t mention Sonic in front of Sparky.”  When she got confused glances in response, she cringed and explained, “He, uh… isn’t a fan…  Sonic… uh,” she was grasping for straws again.  She didn’t want to insinuate too much, but she also didn’t want to be too vague and compel them to _specifically_ bring it up to Metal.  “Sonic… destroyed a creation of his once.  It was on accident, but Sparky’s held a grudge since.  He doesn’t forgive easily.  So just… don’t bring Sonic up around him, kay?  He hates anyone who brings him up as much as he hates Sonic, himself, so… just be careful.”

There was a look of confusion around her, before it was replaced by concern and once she got nods of confirmation, she nodded, herself, grabbed her bags, and finally escaped the cramped bus.  Sighing to herself once she was back on the pavement, she glared towards Metal, who was still tapping his foot impatiently by the hotel doors.  Despite his attempts to distance himself from Sonic… he looked almost exactly like him whenever he got impatient.  She half expected a ‘you’re too slow’ as soon as she reached him again.  If he angered her too much on this trip, she was going to use that against him.  Now that all the confusion and panic of the bus ride was over with, it was back to business and she _hadn’t forgotten_ his threat to keep her away from the Gaia Manuscripts.

Once the rest of the class was off the bus and their items were gathered, the teachers and chaperones herded their groups together so the head teacher could explain the rest of the day’s schedule and plans.  Itara edged her way around the back of the large group, staying close enough to hear what was going on, but far enough that she had room to breathe and move again.  Her legs were cramped and as soon as the teacher was done talking she wanted to go yell at Metal for ditching her.

At least it sounded like they were going to have an hour or so to get situated in their hotel rooms, walk around, stretch out, take care of anything they needed to before they left for the first actual stop of the trip.  It didn’t sound like even the first day would be all that calm and, as soon as they were rested up and stretched out from the ride over, they would be leaving for a number of events.  The first of which was going to be some kind of art museum and then lunch at a nearby park.

The teachers led the students into the hotel lobby, telling them to wait quietly out of the way while they checked in and got room keys.  There were a few more than sixty kids in Itara’s class and ten chaperones, teachers and Metal Sonic, included.  The rooms were split up in groups of three or four based on the designated groupings, meaning for every room that had a chaperone, there was half a group that didn’t.  A list of who was in what room had been handed out with a packet of information about the entire trip to each student and chaperone before the trip.  Once the room keys were handed out, the rooms with chaperones being given to said chaperones, the layout of the hotel was explained and with a final warning about behaving, they were dismissed to find their rooms and get situated.

Itara hunted Metal back down once the rest of her class dispersed, finding him surveying the central area of the hotel.  It was a fairly standard hotel, so far as she could tell, but the lobby and connecting dining area was large enough to fit several of their house side-by-side.  Reaching the robot, she decided to check the room arrangements again, having only briefly glanced at it when she first got it but realized there would be another one, maybe two, classmates in the room with them.  Also, the realization that she would be sharing a room with Metal Sonic and couldn’t escape to another room when she got tired of him hit.  At home, when he wasn’t playing games on the couch, he was downstairs in the lab.  It was easy to avoid him most of the time, though fighting him for the TV when her shows were on was another story, but now she was stuck with him, in the same room, for four days.

She groaned quietly at the thought, but pulled the packet out to look at the list.  They were going to be in a three-person room, at least, instead of four, so they only had to deal with one other person.  They had an actual group of six, just like everyone else, for the duration of the trip, but at least in the hotel it would only be one other person.  She couldn’t help but wonder how Metal was going to handle this whole ‘chaperoning’ concept when he actually needed to do something beyond scowl.  As she was trying to remember who the girl on the list even was, as it was someone she never paid attention to in any way, she heard footsteps approach and glanced over her shoulder towards them.

She had expected it to be the girl on the list, come to find out where their room would be and what not, but when Itara turned around, not only did she recognize the classmate walking up… but it wasn’t the girl on the list.  It was Sceira.

Glaring, she turned back towards her backpack and list, hissing, “What do you what, Sceira?  Aren’t you in a room with _Camilla_?”  Camilla’s mom, Susan, had been one of the other volunteer chaperones so, of course, Susan, Camilla, and Sceira were all in a group and room together.

“I was, originally, yes,” Sceira explained, her pigtail pincers feeling her way out around the area, catching Metal’s attention finally as he glanced back towards the blind mobian.  “But I asked for a switch.”

Itara had to resist a growl as she stood up and spun around, glaring at the grey-eyed pseudo-scorpion, “ _What?_ ”

Sceira hardly reacted to Itara’s apparent fury, wrapping her arms behind her back as she explained, “I requested Tonia and I switch, so I’m in your room now.”

“Why?!”

“Because I want to make sure you don’t cause trouble during our trip.  You cause plenty enough at school, I refuse to let you mess everything up for everyone on our yearly trip.  I asked the teacher to switch me to your group and put Tonia with Camilla and she obliged when I explained why.  Camilla wasn’t happy about it, but it’s for the sake of our class trip.  Everyone should be able to enjoy themselves and learn without you causing problems.”

Metal Sonic’s eyebrow rose, though he said nothing, but Itara’s eyes narrowed dangerously.  She was absolutely seething.  As if having Metal Sonic there trying to keep her from the Manuscripts wasn’t going to be enough of a pain, now she had to deal with Sceira, too?!  Well.  Nothing was stopping her, she had already decided.  She’d deal with both of them, however she had to.  She didn’t care about Sceira and her stupid trip, she only had one task to accomplish and _nothing_ was getting in her way.


	16. Art Museum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first stop on the school trip and things are already getting heated...

Itara let out a long, exasperated sigh as Sparky unlocked their hotel room and let the three of them in.  The room was decently sized, with two queen-sized beds, a bathroom, small closet, and sitting area with a couch, lounge chair, and coffee table.  Across the couch against the far wall was a much nicer, larger TV than Itara had been expecting with a mini-fridge fitted into part of the stand with a number of snacks and drinks pre-packed into it.  There was plenty of space for movement and while Itara went about exploring where they’d be staying for the next few days—including the snacks—Sceira walked around, doing the same by feeling out corners with her long, piggy-tailed pincers.  Metal, on the other hand, scanned the room and checked the location of the sockets, wondering how well a hotel system would handle his charging needs.  Knowing they would be amongst a number of mortals in tightly packed areas, he hadn’t exactly been able to bring a full charging station for the four-day trip.

Itara had dropped all her bags by the door, only bothering to toss her backpack on the nearest bed, but Sceira placed hers carefully inside the door of the closet.  Once she had the snacks properly investigated, and realized the hotel would charge extra if she touched them, Itara flopped herself onto the bed she had chosen and stared up at the ceiling.  At least the hotel was nice and the beds were comfy, and the TV was big, but the idea of having to share all of it with _Sceira_ of all people heavily degraded its worth.

While she was mulling it over, Sceira had completed her rundown of the room and continued over to the beds… sitting beside Itara, much to her dismay.  Glaring up over at the other girl, Itara hissed, “go sit on your own bed, this one’s mine.”

“There are only two beds, Itara,” the pseudo-scorpion commented, as if that was supposed to explain her decision.

“And?”

Sceira turned towards her now, less for the purpose of making eye contact and more so Itara could see the look of disbelief on her face.  “There are three of us and two beds, it makes more sense for us to share a bed, seeing as we’re smaller.  Unless you’d… rather share one with your… guardian?”

Itara sat up, looking between Sceira and Sparky, who had taken to a window to inspect their surroundings further.  He looked back towards them with an eyebrow rose, but said nothing.  Itara shook her head, facing Sceira again, “Sparky doesn’t sleep on beds,” waving the thought away, she continued, “He can have the couch or something.  He spends most his time on the couch at home, anyway.”

“But…”

“What makes you think I don’t want one of the beds?” Metal grinned, turning just enough to side-eye Itara, who glowered.  He didn’t actually have any interest in their sleeping quarters, he’d already decided the chair was closest to an outlet and would be the most inconspicuous way to charge during the nights, but he also greatly enjoyed making Itara’s life more difficult than it needed to be.  Especially since it was her fault he was there in the first place.

“Because you never sleep… on a bed!” Itara exclaimed, frustrated.

Metal turned around fully and grinned, shrugging and looking off, “well, this is supposed to be a vacation, isn’t it?”  He only opened one eye to see the look on her face, which was exactly as flustered as he’d hoped.  He knew he had her cornered.

Itara’s cheeks puffed up and her face reddened, stammering for a moment.  Getting a calm look back, she reached over, pushing Sceira away from her.  “Fine.  Then Sceira can sleep on the couch.  I claim this bed and I refuse to share.”

“Hey!”

Metal snorted and turned back towards the window, “I’ll leave that between the two of you, then.”

Sceira jumped to her feet and scowled at Itara, who crossed her arms and looked away stubbornly.  “I am not sleeping on the couch, Itara!  The bed is plenty big enough for both of us!  You’re barely even bigger than one of the _pillows_!”

Once again, Itara’s face flushed up.  Sure, the beds were built human-sized, since the hotel got both human and mobian visitors, meaning any mobian visitor had plenty of space and could easily fit several onto one bed.  The ones in their room could likely even fit three or four humans, depending on their size, but even so Itara was still sensitive about her size and took it as a slight rather than an observation.  “I’ll show you ‘bigger than a pillow’ when I _suffocate you with one_!”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Sceira scoffed, “besides, you can’t.  Not only would that cause you _plenty_ of trouble, but I’m more than certain I’m stronger than you.  You don’t need to _see_ to know of _your_ many blunders in PE.”

“THAT’S IT!”  With no more words, Itara dove from the bed and jumped for Sceira.  She knew full well that she had no physical strength to speak of, she was clumsy and incredibly easy to knock around, but it mattered little to her at the moment as both she and Sceira hit the ground.  She went for the other girl’s throat first, but Sceira grabbed her wrists before she could get far and held her back long enough to knock her off to the side.

While the two wrestled it out on the ground, Metal simply glanced back and out the window, debating to himself if he should break the fight up.  He _was_ supposed to be some sort of chaperone to an entire group of the small children, letting a fight break out almost immediately upon arrival at their destination might look bad on him.  Then again, he didn’t exactly volunteer for this in the first place and it was no concern to him whether Itara and her little mortal friends fought.  Maybe if she came back with some kind of injury it would teach RK a lesson about putting him in charge of the brat.  Again.

Then again, the possessed doll’s description of a ‘momma bear’ was an accurate enough one for RK regarding the tiny hedgehog and mobians had a tendency to do far more damage during fights than most humans.  Even at younger ages.  He’d learned that quickly enough dealing with Tails.  If she came home with injuries, lesson as it may be, it’d also get him hit.  He had no problem with a fight, for the most part, he was built to destroy and a good fight sounded like the exact kind of stress relief he needed right now… but not a fight with RK.  Soft as RK had gotten over the years, his fist hadn’t and he’d already been punched twice now since his reactivation.  He didn’t necessarily want to make it a third so soon.  Sighing in annoyance, he turned back around, finding one of the scorpion’s pigtails wrapped tightly around the little hedgehog’s neck and almost smirked.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough, you two,” he sighed, walking over and picking them both up by the backs of their shirts, shaking the pigtail loose and watching Itara gasp for breath.  “As much as I enjoy a good fight, now isn’t the time.”  Sceira cooled down the quickest and quickly apologized, prompting Metal to put her back down first, but Itara only got angrier once her breath returned.  Holding her up further, he raised an eyebrow, “you just enjoy getting choked out, don’t you?”

“P-Put me d-down, Sparky!” she hissed, coughing afterwards.

“And what if I don’t feel like it?”  She growled in response, but Metal walked over and set her down on the bed.  “We’re supposed to be taking off again soon so both of you need to calm down.  Go… wash off or… something.”  Sceira nodded quietly and walked off to the bathroom, but Itara crossed her arms and looked away.  Once the bathroom door shut, Metal just grinned and leaned over, lowering his voice, “You ought to learn to actually fight before you start things you can’t finish.”

“Sh-shut up.”

 Metal shrugged, readying himself to face the insanity of the rest of the third graders again while waiting for the two children to finish getting ready, themselves.  No further words were spoken between the two of them, Metal only commanding them to follow once Sceira returned from the bathroom and they were ready to go.  He wasn’t exactly ecstatic about the idea of leading a bunch of third graders around Gaia’s domain, either, but perhaps _he_ could learn something about the current state of the world while they were out.

The three headed back down to the hotel lobby where most the other students were already standing around waiting, chatting amongst themselves, while the chaperones for each group hovered nearby.  Camilla was standing further away from her group, talking with her mother, neither seeming all that pleased, either, but Itara paid it no mind.  Instead, she decided to take another look at the stack of papers to find out which group was theirs.  There were two clusters of children without obvious chaperones, since not everyone was back in the lobby yet, but she pointed them out soon enough and Metal lurked reluctantly _near_ them.  Itara and Sceira continued all the way to the rest of the group, but Metal remained at a distance.

Once everyone was gathered again, the head teacher got everyone’s attention, went over the schedule for the rest of the day, and explained how they were getting from each place.  The first stop was the major art museum, a short bus ride further into the city, then from there they would be walking to a nearby park for lunch, and then another short walk to a shopping center for a ‘cultural scavenger hunt’, led by the chaperones.  Itara was most distraught over the idea of walking for long periods, for a number of reasons, but she hadn’t missed the look of utter disinterest on Metal’s face when the scavenger hunt was brought up.  She wanted to laugh at him, but knew it’d come back on her all too easily without RK around.

The kids who had taken the bus down packed back into it, while the kids who had taken the cars went back to them once they were given another set of directions for their drivers.  Itara and Metal wasted less time getting onto the bus this time to avoid the dead center again.  Not that they could avoid being surrounded altogether, but at least they could sit towards the front so it was a quick and easy on and off.  Itara debated whether she wanted to sit by Metal again, but realized easily enough that there weren’t many other options and plopped down beside him with a disgruntled huff.

“Get on the inside,” he demanded, eyeing her.  He refused to be locked in any more than he already would be.

“Well then why did you sit down first?” Itara huffed back, crawling over him to the inside of the seat and shuffling out of her backpack.

“Because I originally intended to sit here _alone_.”

“Yeah, well, it’s either you or some other classmate I don’t care about since there aren’t enough seats for both of us to sit alone.”

“That’s hardly my concern.”

“It is now.”

There was a moment of silence as they eyed one another before they both turned away in disgust.  Itara shuffled around in the seat to get comfortable again, opening her backpack to pull Kipper out, who was still stuffed into the main pocket, and wrapped him up tightly in her arms as she pulled her legs up to her chest.  Admittedly, she had been expecting the doll to cause some kind of problem by now, since he never stayed this quiet for this long even when she was at school, but she was at least grateful for it.  Then again…

Tilting her head to the side to look the doll in the eyes, she glanced around, waiting for the bus to get loud with chatter before whispering, “Wanna help me get back at Sceira?”

The red gem on the doll’s head lit up and the dead felt eyes came briefly to life, before returning back to their doll-like state, though the gem remained glowing.  He was listening.  Glancing up at Metal, she shuffled closer to the window and curled in on herself more, whispering her ideas into the little doll’s cotton-stuffed ears, watching one of them twitch in response, and smiling when she got a confirmation nod.  If she couldn’t fight Sceira directly, then she would just fight indirectly.  It’s what she did best, after all.

The drive over to the museum was much shorter than the drive from Soleanna, even with the heavier traffic, making some of the mobian children question why they couldn’t just run or fly over.  Even Metal scoffed that it would have taken him less time to run to the museum than it took the bus to even get started, but Itara shook her head, pulling her backpack back on while keeping Kipper in her arms.  As someone less… _stable_ than other mobians, she, like most her human classmates, preferred the ride over.  Metal, however, once again wasted no time getting off the bus once the doors were open.  He was out and waiting on the sidewalk before even Itara realized he’d left.  She couldn’t wait to see him have to keep pace with a bunch of tiny third-grader legs for the scavenger hunt.

With the same awe and confusion, the rest of the kids filed out of the bus, watching the antsy blue hedgehog as they did, some of them quietly whispering amongst themselves about topics Itara hoped to High Hell he couldn’t hear.  As entertaining as it would be to watch him go ballistic on her classmates, they didn’t need a short end to this trip right now.  Not yet.  Shuffling quietly over to him, the rest of their group following before long, the teacher once again announced the plans for the museum in further depth.  They were to be quiet, courteous, and fill out a worksheet about specific works of art while they were there.  Each group’s packets were different, with focuses on different pieces, that they would then be creating a small presentation for the other groups and the museum patrons, something the school had worked out with the curators before the trip.

Itara silently raged at the idea.  She hated presentations.  She hated group projects even more.  Looking around at her group, she scowled off to the side, hoping she could convince them to maybe not force her to talk during whatever presentation they would be doing.  It was embarrassing enough dealing with her stutter in front of her classmates, to embarrass herself in front of an entire museum of strangers sounded horrifying.  She wanted nothing to do with it.

With the packets handed out, the teacher dismissed all the groups and the droves of small children entered the museum, in their somewhat separate groups, to find the answers to their packets.  They had two hours to get it all together, then they were supposed to meet back up in the museum’s main lobby.  Itara scanned the questions as they walked, Metal Sonic staying as far from any one person as he could manage without escaping altogether.  Quickening her pace to catch back up with him, she reached up and pulled on his sleeve to get his attention.

“What.”  He sounded as frustrated as he looked.

Itara held the packet up to him, “You know these… you can just- look all this up, can’t you?”

He looked down at the packet with an eyebrow rose, scanning the questions before looking up again, scoffing, “of course I can.  But I _won’t_.”

“Why not?  The faster we get these answered, the sooner we can escape elsewhere until the presentation.”

“Because, dear little hedgehog,” Metal smirked down at her with a narrowed eye, “what would _you_ learn if I just gave you the answers?”

Itara frowned, narrowing her eyes back, “Like any of this matters to me in the first place.  None of this is related to Gaia.”

“I’m fairly certain I saw a question on there about a painting of Gaia.”

“I already know full well what both Dark and Light Gaia look like, a painting of him is of no interest to me!”

“Shh, don’t yell in a museum.”  He was having too much fun mocking her and she was going to get him back for it.   Huffing angrily, she looked away from him, following silently as they continued their way through the museum.  One of the other kids in her group went to grab a map for them so they could figure out where each of their works should be located and Itara decided to point out the quickest route through to hit them all and circle back.

While they walked, they crossed paths with other groups often enough, sometimes ending up going the same way for a little while, causing the groups to merge.  Itara continued to remain on the outskirts of all of them, only listening in or searching out the answers for the packet and having no interest otherwise in the conversations going on.  However, during one of the merges, it ended up being Sceira’s original group, with Susan and Camilla, that they ended up on the same path as.  Itara had even less interest in everything happening than she had before.  Sceira and Camilla, of course, grouped back up and chatted about what they’d found so far, while Susan walked far behind them all, her signature look of patronizing disinterest never leaving her face.

The group stopped in front of a large painting of a green and purple, shadowy figure floating and watching over a corner of the earth from space.  The figure, itself, was vague in shape, several times larger than the earth and almost snake or worm-like in its perceived motion.  The title of the piece was ‘Life and Destruction’, and there was a small description in the museum guide book about it being theorized that it was some kind of Ancient God, though it had never been confirmed which one.  The other children had a discussion amongst themselves about it, since their packet questions asked for their own opinions on the matter, but Itara once again remained out of it.  She knew who it was.

It wasn’t uncommon for the Ancient Gods to give life as often as they destroyed it, Chaos only went rampant because the Chao were attacked, even Solaris only held a grudge because his power was tainted by humans.  But between the title, the colors, and the familiar purple-glowing tendrils floating around the head of the figure, Itara knew it was Dark Gaia, specifically.  Gaia was said to be in a constant back and forth with itself, split into Light and Dark, Creation and Destruction.  Dark Gaia awakened only once every thousand years to destroy what Light Gaia had created, then go back to sleep and let the cycle continue.

She had seen the previous iteration of that cycle once.  Dark Gaia had an extremely recognizable figure when you’ve seen it in person, even for an uncertain, vague painting.  Maybe she should explain this to her group, ensure that they had the right answer, at least.  If she was going to be involved with some kind of presentation of information, she could at least make sure they had the right answers.  She knew nothing about art, but she could at least explain some of the history _in_ them, if it came up.

While she walked over to the group to correct their incorrect assumptions about the Ancient God in question, Susan inched towards Metal, who was doing his own research towards the back of the room.  She’d been watching them all with a sharp eye and, after listening to Itara’s apparent certainty regarding the painting, felt the need to investigate.  As she approached, Metal’s proximity meter alerted him to her presence and he minimized the window he’d been looking at and turned a bored eye to the human woman.  RK had warned him about this one, she seemed to be suspicious of them, unlike Lynda.  Well, or so RK said.  Metal wasn’t entirely convinced their nosy neighbor wasn’t equally suspicious, he would watch what he said around either.

“You’re Itara’s… _guardian_ , correct?”  There was a certain spitefulness in her voice that put Metal on guard with her.  It was entirely unlike Lynda’s, who just appeared to be nosy, instead she sounded exactly as suspicious as Metal thought them all to be.

“I suppose that’s what I’ve become for this trip,” he responded with equal levels of disdain, hoping to prove he didn’t fear her prodding the way the others might.  He wouldn’t give away their true natures, of course, but it took more than a nosy human to put him on edge.

“You were at the New Year’s Party, as well, were you not?”

“Briefly.”  RK wasn’t particularly happy with him after that event.  Not that it mattered.

“So what is Itara to you, then?  You don’t sound overly pleased about being called her guardian.”

Metal glanced over, studying the look on her face and the tone of her voice.  There was no doubt about it, she was digging.  She was looking for something specific.  He couldn’t determine what just yet, but he recognized the tone easily enough.  It wasn’t unlike the Doctor’s at some points, making him quite disinterested in talking further with such people.  He’d had enough of them.  He was too busy trying to drag Itara’s plots out to deal with the humans.

“I don’t believe that’s any of your business.  Now, don’t you think you should get back to _your_ children?  They seem to be taking off,” he motioned towards the group that had joined them as they continued towards another hallway while his own remained stationary in front of the painting.  Susan eyed him coldly, but said nothing and followed after them, disappearing beyond the door soon enough.  Metal gave a short mental nod of affirmation, but shook it away when Itara approached him.

“We’re just about done with our packets, Sparky.  We just have one more statue to find and we can head off to the lobby, how much time do we have left?”

“Mm, thirty-two minutes,” Metal glared down at her afterwards, “I’m getting tired of this nickname you’ve given me, as well.”

“What, you want me to call you by your full name?  Here?  Amongst people?” Itara hissed, lowering her voice and glancing back towards the rest of the group, mostly wary of Sceira.  Metal frowned, debating it.

“Then why doesn’t RK have a ridiculous nickname?”

“Because he’s been inactive for decades and RK already technically is a nickname.  Robo-Knux isn’t exactly his built-in name, after all.  Not that this is the place for this discussion.”  She turned around towards the hallway they needed to continue in, shrugging and tossing over her shoulder, “you’re just gonna hafta deal with it for now, Sparks.”  Though, with her head turned over her shoulder and her eyes closed, it barely took the length of that final sentence before she tripped over her shoes and plummeted face-first into the tile ground.  Much to Metal’s amusement.

“Perhaps you’re right.  Some nicknames are worth it,” he grinned, getting a scowl from the little hedgehog as she pushed herself back up.  “Left-foot.”

“D-Don’t you dare!”

“Don’t I dare… what?” Metal’s grin only widened as her face reddened in frustration, “Come on, you had packets to finish, didn’t you?  Best get on our way.”  He led the way back out of the room, leaving Itara to mumble and pout her way out.  If she was going to give him embarrassing nicknames that he had no choice but to go by for now, then he would return the favor.  She gave him plenty opportunities to exploit it, after all.  Now that he thought about it, Mephiles wasn’t exactly all that graceful on his feet when he had to actually walk, either.  Perhaps there was a reason the half-God was always floating in that black mist of his.


	17. Petty Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara and Kipper are up to their nonsense again.

Itara took a step back, watching with barely contained amusement as one of the many museum patrons took a step closer to the large oil painting in front of him.  A red, velvet rope hung on golden poles around it, keeping the painting out of reach, but the man stepped as close as he could without crossing the line, studying the large painting of a flaming bird closely.

Though Itara stood alone at the moment, her group was nearby, studying a marble sculpture.  They’d answered all the questions on their packets and had decided to explore and examine some of the pieces they hadn’t before.  The main lobby was directly to their left so they wouldn’t be far when it got close, and because of this Sparky had decided to take a rest on one of the nearby benches.  He sat to Itara’s right and she backed up towards him until she sat on the metal bench beside him.  He eyed her as she did, noting the look of trouble easily enough.

“What are you up to, Left-Foot?”

“Me?  Nothing, nothing at all, Sparky,” she responded rather matter-of-factly, keeping her sights on the painting.  He eyed her suspiciously, eventually following her line of sight to the painting.  He studied it, comparing it to a file online to see if something was different about it, but saw nothing… at first.  But then, he swore, the painting shifted.  It was subtle, and even he hadn’t been sure at first, but upon reviewing his optical files he confirmed that it did, in fact, shift ever so slightly.  The bird’s beak moved a centimeter to the left to stare at the man studying it.  The man also seemed to catch something, but with the shake of his head, he dismissed it, much to the tiny hedgehog’s amusement.

“You are planning something.”

“Nope.  Not me.”

“…Where is the possessed doll?”

A grin spread across Itara’s face before it vanished again, “I wonder…”

So that was it.  Looking towards the painting again, he had only enough time to stand back up before the room’s lights flashed, drawing everyone’s attention.

“That’s strange… it’s only this room,” one of their group, who had been closer to the entrance lobby, commented.

“What happened?” Sceira questioned.

“The lights are flashing.  But only in here.”

Another quick smirk flashed across Itara’s face, which only Metal caught, as the lights stopped flashing and dimming down instead.  As it dimmed, a deep red glow emanated from the painting of the bird, causing the man near it to jump and move away, drawing the attention of the others, as well.

“What…”

“What’s going on?”

“What is that?”

For whatever reason, Metal could find no discernable reason why, the group of children flocked back to him, keeping him between them and the painting.  Did they think he would protect them?  How funny.  Itara, on the other hand, remained in place and just watched the painting with intrigue and amusement.  She was hardly trying to keep it off her face.

As the darkened room drew attention from others in connecting rooms, including museum staff, the painting shifted once again, less and less subtly until the great, flaming bird turned to face directly out and screeched.  Both children and adults screamed in horror around them, the man that had been closest scrambled away in terror, and the security that had run in stared in baffled confusion.  The children huddled further behind Metal, who eyed them quizzically before returning his gaze to the painting, scanning it for the doll’s signature.

The oil in the painting reeled back from the bird’s flames as it neared the unseen wall between them, screeching and cawing so loudly that mobians and humans alike shielded their ears.  Even Itara’s ears flattened against the noise, but she remained still as the bird’s claws and beak scratched and stabbed at the barrier of the painting.  The canvas charred as flames engulfed the wooden frame, grasping at the white wall behind it.  Children screamed in horror and security ran for fire extinguishers, though they had no effect on the ghostly flames spreading across the wall.

“W-We should… g-get outta here!” one of the children of the group yelped, gaining a side-eyed glance from Metal, who waved him away.

“Off with you, then.  Nothing’s keeping you here.”

“But-!”

“Come on, Val, let’s just go!”

The group of five, Sceira in tow, ran yelling from the room, leaving Itara and Metal standing near the bench, watching curiously as the bird finally smashed through its barrier and screamed out of the painting, diving for the nearest security guard.  Itara could feel the heat coming off its body, but as it swooped in and around the room, the lights cut out entirely for all of a split second before coming back on… and both the fire and the bird vanished.  The red glow was gone and the painting, frame, and wall returned to normal.  A shadow behind the painting shifted, unseen by all but Itara, who carefully set her backpack on the ground, watching the shadow skirt around the edges of the room and melt into the side of her backpack.  She picked it up and returned it to her back without a word, looking up at Metal, who stared down at her incredulously.  She only offered an ‘innocent’ smile before walking off towards the lobby.

“We should meet back up with our group.”

“What was even the point of that?”

“I don’t know why you’d think I’d know.  I did _nothing_.”  And yet, she sounded so utterly satisfied with herself that Metal believed exactly none of it.  He would question her further about it later, answering now risked someone overhearing.

They continued out to the lobby, greeted with the staring, horrified faces of many museum patrons, much of Itara’s class, included.  Itara wiped the amusement off her face quickly enough but Metal’s own look of boredom never changed.

“What was that?!”

Itara shrugged, walking back over to her terrified group, one of which was explaining everything that happened in explicit and horrified detail to the blind, confused pseudo-scorpion.  Camilla and Susan were amongst the group that had been standing nearby, staring, and neither Itara nor Metal missed the looks of suspicion they both gave them, though neither seemed overly concerned about it, either.  None of them said anything, and as museum curators and security, alike, went running to the ‘haunted’ room, the main teacher decided it best that they skip their presentations and move on to their lunch location.  It was still early and therefore the lunch they’d ordered wouldn’t be meeting them for another hour or so, but they decided it was best to let the children rest after such a ‘terrifying’ experience in a nice, open park.

Few of the children had qualms with this plan and only Susan voiced opposition to it amongst the chaperones.  Ultimately, it was decided they could give their presentations during lunch to their classmates and moved out of the museum.  Itara wasn’t sure how she felt about giving the presentation at a park, where more people were likely to be, but it was worth it.  Sceira looked terrified.

With the class grouped back together, the smaller groups dispersed amongst the crowd again during the walk, though remained in a relatively straight line along the way.  Both Metal and Itara remained near the back, not for lack of keeping up in Metal’s case, but to keep as much distance between him and the others as possible.  Itara, however, was just slow.  Though the city was on flatter ground than the outer edges of Soleanna, the walk was still decently long and Itara was easily the shortest amongst her classmates, even mobians.  When she slowed further, incidentally falling back by Metal, he stared down at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not carrying you like RK.”

Her face flushed, “I d-didn’t want you to!”

“So you’re just slow.”

“You’re slow!”  His gaze turned from amused to furious at the accusation, but Itara crossed her arms and looked away, “In fact, I bet with all the damage you’ve taken, Sonic’s faster than you now.”

“ _Take that back._ ”

She was edging into dangerous territory, and almost regretted looking up at him when she did, but stubbornly doubled-down instead of doubling back.  Puffing her cheeks out, she scoffed, “You’re just fast compared to RK because he’s built for impact rather than speed.  I bet Sonic’s _way_ faster than you now, being all out of shape and _lazy_ as you are.”  She glanced over, not seeing him at first, and looked back to realize he’d stopped.  His eyes were narrowed dangerously and glowing brightly.  Even in the bustle of the city, she could hear his systems whirring and turned all the way around, putting her hands on her hips, “what are you doing?  Don’t do anyth-.”  But long before she could finish her sentence, the wind was suddenly knocked clean out of her and the world rushed by in a flurry of colors and puddles of shapes.  Her head spun and she felt sick to her stomach, similar to when she first learned to time travel, and reached up to grab her head.

By the time she could think to close her eyes, however, the world came crashing back into view, though her head was spinning so badly she was convinced she was still moving.  She wasn’t even sure when she got put back on the ground, but felt the rough warmness of sand and the dry wind soon enough and reached out to grab onto the soft ground to try and stabilize herself again.

“Who’s slow now?”

It took her several minutes to look up at the towering, angry robot, but fell back against the sand as soon as she did, staring dizzily up at him.  “B-Bite… me… S-Sparks…”

Metal huffed in amusement and stood back up straight, staring out at the wide open desert before them.  The city was several miles behind them and the nearest tree several miles in the opposite direction.  The wind whipped sand around and the sun beat furiously down on them, Metal grunted at his heating systems but Itara only laid and basked in the warmth.  It had been so cold lately, and while the wind was still biting, the sun felt incredible.  After some time, she sat back up and looked out towards the desert, watching the shifting dunes, reaching up to brush the sand from her quills.

“I found that scepter in an area similar to this, you know.”

She looked up curiously, then back out at the horizon, “I’m surprised you’ve retained that memory.  RK couldn’t remember the base that I rescued him from because of the reset.  I had to fill it in for him.”

There was silence again before Itara sighed and stood up, brushing the rest of her quills and clothes clean, “but to answer your earlier questions, I asked Kipper to help me get some revenge.  It was 100% worth it to see the fear on Sceira’s face both when everything was happening and when it was being described to her.  Plus, it might be difficult for Kipper to activate much during this trip due to the hotel room setup so I wanted to give him something to do, as well.”

“That doll is increasingly reckless considering how careful _we_ have to be about our situation,” Metal glared back towards the backpack that housed said doll.

“Maybe… but people are more willing to overlook things when it comes to ghosts.  They don’t like believing in them and will more often than not come to their own more ‘rational’ conclusion.  So I think letting Kipper have some fun every so often is fine, as long as he doesn’t bother anyone in our neighborhood.”

“If you say so.  Not that I care, as long as I remain out of Robotnik’s reach I couldn’t care less.”

Itara basked in the sun a bit longer before finally turning towards Metal fully, “we should return before our absence is noticed.  It likely already has been…”

Metal smirked and reached down, pulling the hedgehog up by the waist, much to her displeasure, “we can just say something caught your attention.”

“Why me?”

“Because I’m not so easily distracted from a mission.”

Itara huffed, but closed her eyes as soon as she heard his systems whirring again, wanting to avoid as much dizziness as possible this time.  At least she knew what was coming.  She had been joking earlier about him being slow, having said it mostly to get on his nerves, but now she was actually curious what his highest speed capped out at.  It could be important later.  What with the monsters reappearing, Sonic being active again, and that new robot working for Robotnik, it might be best if both Sparky and RK were in prime fighting condition.  Just as a precaution.

When they returned to the city again their group had only just reached the park, gathering in a larger, open area away from other people while the head teacher gave out commands regarding their ‘break’.  Itara heard exactly none of anything that was being said, as she was still trying to keep her head on her shoulders after the run.  Metal rejoined them as inconspicuously as possible, only running to just outside the park and then walking the rest of the way to keep as much suspicion off as he could manage.  Luckily only a couple parents towards the back of the group had even noticed him walking up and paid little mind to it.

The kids were going to be given about twenty minutes to regain their bearings and discuss their presentations, whatever they had of them, and at the thirty-minute mark, they would give them, going in group number order.  Metal checked his log for their own group number, and after counting the dispersing kids, realized they were the last group.  That both slightly annoyed him, the idea of going last, but at the same time it mattered little to him.  He wasn’t actually _involved_ in any of this.  _He_ wasn’t going to be doing anything except staying as far away from everyone as he could get.  He almost debated just going for a run around the city while Itara did her little ‘presentation’.  Maybe get an updated layout of the city, for his personal records.

Having made his decision, he set Itara back down, watching her stumble for a minute, before explaining, “I’m going for a quick run.  Don’t cause trouble while I’m gone.”

Itara looked up at him with an eyebrow rose, Metal smirking when her eyes were still somewhat spinning from the run.  “We just got back from a run, where are you going now?”

“Wait, you’re leaving us?” Sceira questioned, catching Metal and Itara’s attention as they realized their group had rejoined _them_.

“Just for a couple minutes, if even that.  You can handle your little project on your own, you have thus far.”

“You can’t just leave us unattended,” the scorpion argued, much to Metal’s irritation.  Shouldn’t she know better than to argue with her elders?  Then again, Itara argued with anyone, but he figured that was just her.  As small as she _appeared_ , she was actually much older than everyone around her.  Not that she always acted like it.

“There are several adults around you, you’ll be fine.  If you can’t be trusted alone for a couple minutes then perhaps you shouldn’t have been trusted on such a trip in the first place,” Metal eyed her, though realized the pointlessness of such an act when Itara not-so-subtly waved her hands in front of her own eyes.  Metal studied the grey-skinned little girl for a moment, noticing the rather obvious film over her eyes and the pincers she’d pulled into piggy tails.  “What kind of mobian are you, exactly?  You don’t look like a normal scorpion.”

“I’m not,” Sceira responded, her pincers moving up and around her, causing Itara to subconsciously flinch and step away.  “Apparently I’m referred to as a ‘pseudo’ scorpion.  We’re smaller and less lethal than normal scorpions; we’re also commonly blind, as you can likely tell.  My father is a normal scorpion, but my mother is a pseudo.”

“Interesting…,” it was the first time Metal Sonic had seen such a creature.  “In any case, I’m going to go stretch my legs.  I’ll be back in two minutes, work on your projects and don’t cause trouble.”  Before any of the kids could argue further, he took off in a ‘light’ jog, planning to speed up once he was out of their eyesight.

Once he was gone, Itara sighed, reaching up to scratch the back of her ear, “he’s such a problem child.  Anyway, let’s get this stupid presentation thing done with already, I need a nap.  And a cookie.”

Her classmates eyed her strangely, but she ignored them and pulled the worksheet from her backpack to get the presentation started.  Honestly, she didn’t even know where to begin with any of it and hoped the others would do most of the work, she didn’t exactly like the idea of public speaking, she barely liked normal speaking.  Unfortunately, Sceira was relentless in getting her involved, despite her many protests, and Metal had returned long before they ever finished and apparently thought it was amusing to also get her more involved than she ever needed to be.  At least she managed to talk them out of having her be the main speaker, considering not even Sceira wanted to hear her stutter through it all, but she ended up _writing_ most of the presentation.  She was only glad they were going last so she had the time to tweak what they had wrong.

When it finally came time for them to present theirs, Itara remained as far back as she could manage without escaping entirely while her classmates explained the pieces they had studied at the museum.  However, as they were standing in front of the entirety of the rest of their class, and Itara stared off in every other direction, something off in the distance caught her attention.  It was over the line of trees behind her watching class, off to the side a bit, a small, reddish-purple creature popping up and over the trees for a second before disappearing behind them again.

She focused in on it, narrowing her eyes, ignoring her classmates now, waiting for the creature to pop up again.  It wasn’t so much its appearance that struck a nerve with her… it was the energy it was giving off.  It felt familiar, yet not at the same time, and she couldn’t quite place it.  After a moment, the creature popped back up again, a small burgundy and white, almost foxlike mobian, with little green wings.  It floated above the tree line, scanned the area, and then dropped back down again.  Something about it put Itara’s nerves on edge.

Luckily or not, her attention was drawn away from it when Sceira nudged her, letting her know the presentation was done and they were free to relax until lunch.  It was the only positive sentence she’d ever heard from Sceira the entire time she’d known her.  As the rest of her class scattered around the park, Itara marched over to Metal, who was standing under the nearest tree, his eye lit up as he stared off.

“Hey, Sparky,” she called, reaching up to smack the side of his arm, receiving a glare in return.  “I need you to look into something.”

“And if I choose not to?”

Itara huffed, glaring up at him, “there’s a strange creature here with a familiar energy signature and it could be related to the _other things_.”

“Too bad for you, RK specifically told me to keep you out of that _other things_ trouble.  So unless it confronts us directly, I’m choosing to ignore it.”

“Why do you listen to RK so easily but ignore everything I say?!”

“Simple, I trust RK more.”

“No, you just don’t wanna get hit again,” Itara hissed.

“You think I’m _afraid_ of RK?  Please,” Metal hissed in return, “He may be built stronger, but I do not fear him.  Back when we were both still active, before going rogue, he was my only sparring partner, the only other robot strong enough to fight _me_.  I don’t fear him, I look forward to fights with him.”

“Uh-huh, sure.  If you don’t fear him, then help me look into the thing.”

“I am not so easy to trick, Daughter of Mephiles.  Now go play with all your kiddy friends, I have work to do.”

Itara’s spines stood on end at the insult, her fists curling as her cheeks puffed.  However, instead of wasting her time with retorts, she stormed off towards the trees where she saw the creature, “fine.  If you won’t look into it, I’ll do it myself.”  However, before she could get far, the ground beneath her rather suddenly disappeared and she found herself face-to-face with the unamused robot, “p-put me down!”

“Not a chance.  Stay where I can see you, troublemaker… and put those spines down before I start calling you a porcupine.”

“I am not a porcupine!”

Metal smirked, but set her back down, watching with amusement as she tried flattening her spines and fur but only worsened them the huffier she got, muttering angrily under her breath the entire time.  Eventually, she gave up and screeched out in frustration, getting a short chuckle out of the robot.  “I hate you.”

“Good.  Now go play with your friends like a proper child.”

“Go jump in the ocean,” Itara growled, turning on her heel and storming off.  Not necessarily towards the rest of her classmates, she had no interest in them, either, but away.  Instead, she went to find a place to hide out of sight so she could talk to Kipper.  On her way to find said hiding spot, however, the other source of her constant irritation cut her off, refusing to move when she threatened them to do so.

“Like I’m afraid of you,” Camilla mused, crossing her arms and standing taller, just to tower over Itara that much more.  Sceira and a couple other girls from Camilla’s group were standing around her, as always.  “I bet you had something to do with what happened at the art museum, didn’t you?  I don’t know how, but trouble follows you like a shadow.”

“How could I possible have done that?  D-Don’t be stupid,” Itara growled, not in the mood for mockery.  “And I’d prefer Shadow didn’t follow me, either.”  Apparently that joke went entirely over their heads as they all looked at her strangely.  She briefly wondered if any of them even knew who Shadow was.  As involved as he often was with bigger problems, he wasn’t exactly as well-known as Sonic.  She rolled her eyes but took a step towards them, intending to walk past them, but neither Camilla nor any of the others moved out of her way.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Itara remained silent for a moment, going over several possible responses, eventually looking up and grinning, “Oh, you know, just off to reawaken an Ancient God so it can destroy the world.  Nowhere interesting.”  She hoped that came off as much of a joke as she _mostly_ meant it, but worried for a couple minutes that they might take her seriously.  While the Ancient Gods were active lately, _she_ had nothing to do with it for once.  Though she wouldn’t put it past Camilla or Sceira to try and pin it on her somehow, anyway.

Not that she wouldn’t love to show them her true power someday, either.

Someday, if she ever got full control of her powers again, she wanted to _show_ them why they should fear her.  Show them the mistakes they’ve been making, by ostracizing her so much.  Even her ‘guardians’ were two Robotnik-created ex-killer robots, one of which assisted her in destroying the world once before.  Just because they were trying to lay low now, just because she didn’t have her powers anymore, didn’t mean they _were_ average in any way.  Didn’t mean they shouldn’t be feared.

But that wasn’t an example she could give at the time.  For now, she just had to hope Camilla picked up on her sarcasm and didn’t push it any further.

Camilla stared her down, but as she spoke again, a distant, inaudible shout from across the field drew both their attention… a few seconds too late as a bright red disk careened directly at them.  The speeding round object struck Itara dead in the middle of the forehead first, bounding off and cracking against Camilla’s face, sending both of them crashing back into the dirt, more so from the shock and panic rather than the force of the plastic object lying between them.

There was a moment of silence as a small group of classmates sped over, likely the ones throwing the Frisbee, before a chorus of barely contained laughter broke out.  There were only giggles from the girls that had been following Camilla, though Sceira stood in confused silence, but from the parents and kids that had caught sight of the event, muffled laughter erupted.  Some less muffled than others.  The kids that were running over apologized, trying not to join the laughter, while Susan bolted over to check on Camilla.

“I’m so sorry!” the boy at the lead of the Frisbee group exclaimed, swiping his Frisbee up and hiding it behind his back, “I didn’t mean to throw it that hard!  Are you two okay?”

Camilla recovered quicker than Itara, who scowled hatefully up at the boy, her mom helping her up and obsessively checking for injuries.  “That hurt, you jerk!”

“I’m sorry!”

Itara shook her head, reaching up to rub her forehead and briefly scowled up at the boy before pushing herself up to her feet, “next time just aim for Camilla and leave me out of it.”  She was done with everything today already, including this entire conversation, she was leaving.  She waited until Camilla and Susan created a ruckus before slipping away from all of them, half feeling sorry for the boy who threw the Frisbee.  As much as that hurt, she somehow felt the brute force of the other two’s rage was too harsh of a punishment for knocking Camilla over, especially considering Camilla only got the bounce.  But she wasn’t overly concerned with it, either.  She wanted to find her quiet spot away from everyone to talk to Kipper.


	18. Chip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara runs into runs into another part of a different God... too bad it's exactly the opposite of helpful.

Itara wasted no time escaping to the edges of the park again and finding a quieter place under a section of trees.  Once she had her spot and was sure she would be mostly alone for the duration of lunch, she set the little box the school had planned for them aside.  Pulling her backpack off, she dug around for a few minutes, pulling Kipper out to sit in her lap, until she found what she was looking for.  She smiled widely and pulled the little plastic container out as Kipper reactivated to float beside her, popping the lid off to reveal the several days’ worth of chocolate chip cookies.

RK baked them, though made her promise she wouldn’t eat them all at once.  She was only supposed to eat three a day, one more than the usual two she got because it was a special occasion, but there was also no one to stop her from eating more, either.  Well, if she ate them all at once it meant she wouldn’t have any for the rest of the trip so _maybe_ she’d try to save them.  Maybe.  But for now, she thought she deserved at least two of them.  Her face hurt and everyone was annoying.

“Aww, Mama Bear made you cookies for your trip, how cute,” the doll cooed as sarcastically as usual, but only got a side-eyed glance from the little hedgehog, who was happily munching away on her first cookie.  “So what’s our next plan, then?”  Itara knew he wasn’t talking about the actual school-planned activities.

“I don’t know, whatever comes to mind, I guess,” she shrugged, looking around briefly before grabbing the sandwich from her actual lunch.  She was rather hungry, outside of her need for cookies.  “We’re going to be here at the park for another hour or so, and then we’re going on some kind of scavenger hunt in a shopping center.  I’m sure we can find some trouble to cause there.”

The doll only grinned, his gem flashing briefly, before he rather suddenly dropped back into her lap, going back to doll mode.  Itara stared down at him strangely but her ears perked sharply when she heard rustling amongst the leaves.  Looking up and around, she narrowed her eyes as she scanned the trees for the sudden intruder, setting her sandwich down cautiously.  There was silence, but as Itara was about to pick her sandwich back up, the trees rustled again and a small, burgundy creature dropped down in front of her, causing her to screech and nearly toss everything on her lap.

“Ah!  Sorry, sorry!  I didn’t mean to scare you!” the little creature exclaimed, though was clutching his own chest, having been just as startled by her scream as she had been by his appearance.  Once Itara relaxed, he spoke again, grinning, “I just thought I smelled chocolate and couldn’t help myself.”

Itara’s calm demeanor shifted as a snarl spread across her face, instead hissing as she hid her cookies scowling at the small creature recognizing it as the one she had seen earlier.  The creature frowned at her response, looking disappointed that he might not get some of her cookies, after all.  It took several minutes of scowling before Itara realized this was her opportunity to look into what she’d been wanting to earlier and forcefully calmed her face—and spines—as she questioned, suspiciously, “Wh-what… Who are you?”

The creature, who looked about ready to leave, turned towards her again, smiling widely, “My name is Chip.  What’s your name?”

“I-Itara…”  She was wary, and didn’t actually want to share her cookies, but she also desperately needed to know what or who this ‘Chip’ was.  “If… If I give… you a cookie… w-will you… answer something?”  The offer pained her.

Chip’s smile widened as he dropped down in front of her, crossing his legs, “sure thing!”

Sighing, Itara reached over and grabbed one of the smaller cookies and handed it to him.   She remained silent for a moment as he took it, trying to decide how to phrase her question.  Now that he was closer and she could study him better there was no doubt about it: The energy he gave off was anything but normal.  It was definitely familiar somehow, but she still couldn’t place it.  She had no idea who he could be associated with and thus didn’t want to give her own associations away so easily, so she had to keep her questions vague, but specific enough to get the answer she wanted.

“What… are you?” she finally asked, “you… give off a strange aura, you don’t feel like… you’re not a normal mobian, are you?”

Chip looked between her and his cookie, seeming to debate the answer before frowning, “I don’t remember, the reason I’m here now in this city is to answer that, myself.  But you’re the first person I’ve come across that’s even been able to tell anything’s different.”  Itara mentally cringed.  Not only was she not going to get any answers, but now she stuck out to him.  That was exactly what she was trying to avoid.  “Maybe _you_ can help me figure this out!”

Itara hastily threw her hands up, crossing them and exclaiming, “No!  No way, I’m not… I don’t… I can’t.  I’m sorry.  I don’t know anything, I’m just here on a field trip, I’m not even from around here.  There was just something about you that felt strange to me, that’s all.  If you don’t know, yourself, then I can’t-!”

“Hey, now that you’ve mentioned it, there’s a strange power coming from you, too, compared to the rest of this park.”  Itara couldn’t keep the cringe off her face this time.  She could almost hear the chuckle from Kipper.  “You’re not a normal mobian either, right?”

“N-No, I… I’m completely… I’m n-normal, I’m normal.  I swear.”

Chip jumped up to his feet, his wings fluttering enough to lift him off the ground ever so slightly as he stared at her, wide-eyed and ecstatic, “we can work together to find out who I am!”

“No!  I don’t-!”  Even as she argued, he did a flip in the air, clearly hearing nothing she was saying, much to her dismay.  She wanted to run and hide but that never worked out for her.  She had to convince him to leave on his own.  Closing her eyes and calming herself back down, she let out a slow breath and opened them again, “Listen, Chip… I don’t know what you’re reading from me… but I guarantee, I’m just a normal mobian.  I can’t help you.  As I said, I’m just here on a field trip.  I’m only in third grade.  You’re better off finding someone else.”

Chip calmed after a moment, looking over her, but the way his expression shifted into concern, concerned _her_.  “Have you forgotten who you are _too_?”  What.  “Maybe you woke up with no memory, either, and just tried to live a normal life, never knowing who you are, and so you don’t know what kind of power you truly hold!  How terrible!  We really must work together!  For both our memories and pasts!”

Now she really could hear Kipper’s laughter.  Glaring down at the doll, she hissed, before moving to get up, tossing her lunch and cookies—and the doll—back into her backpack and pulling it back on.  “No, really, Chip… I… I know who I am… I have no memory loss… I swear, I’m just-.”

“It’s okay, it’s a hard thing to come to terms with.  But I’ll help you!”

Why.

Why her?

Why today?

Looking around, she knew she couldn’t go back with the rest of her class until she got rid of Chip, he’d draw way too much attention, she needed to get away from him.  As Chip rambled on about something she stopped listening to, she spotted Metal, still on the outskirts, and decided to walk around the edges of the park to get to him.  It’d take longer, going all the way around, but he _had_ to help.  …Well.  No.  He didn’t.  But it was either him or nothing.

Slowly and carefully, with Chip at her back the entire way, she edged around the park, being cautious of her classmates’ locations, until Metal was within earshot.  Calling quietly over to him, having to hiss a little louder to get his attention, she saw the undamaged ear shift towards her and called out a final time.  Red eyes met hers, moving over to the creature hovering nearby with curiosity, before the robot finally moved towards them.  Itara sighed in relief and shot a slight glare towards the unaware Chip, before frowning up at Metal.

“Help.  Please.”

“What is this thing?”

Chip looked up at the towering, red-eyed robot when he approached, staring in baffled silence for all of a second before he darted behind Itara in fear.  Itara sighed and moved away from him, “I don’t know, he doesn’t know, but it’s the _thing_ I asked you to look into earlier.  He found me first… wanting one of my cookies.”  She shot him another scowl for the lost cookie before returning her attention to Metal, “He’s lost his memories and is convinced I’ve lost mine.  He’ll draw too much attention if he stays. Please convince him I’m just a normal mobian.  Please, Sparky…”

Metal contemplated the situation a moment before an amused grin spread across his face, much to Itara’s further dismay.  “I don’t know, you are a bit of an _anomaly_.”

“Sparky please… now isn’t the time for this,” she begged.

Utter, vengeful amusement spread blatantly across his face at her begging, but he remained silent just long enough to scan the other being.  As entertaining as tormenting Itara was, he also wanted to know more about this ‘Chip’.  Itara was right earlier, -- there was something strange about his energy signatures.  It took him a moment to compare them to a number of signatures he had data on, but once he pinpointed it he had to debate whether or not to let Itara know.  It was definitely of interest to her current goals, but that compelled him to withhold it all the more.

During his silence, Chip had done his own studying of the towering hedgehog while Itara went back to trying to convince him to leave.  “I’ve never seen a mobian with black eyes like that before, either.  But you don’t even have a readable power.  Maybe you’re the strange one.”

Metal focused back in on the conversation, staring the creature down and crossing his arms.  This one seemed like a loudmouth.  Their situation could too easily be exposed if he learned too much.  As much as he would have liked to mock Itara further, it would be best to get rid of him after all.  Unfortunately, Metal had a _long_ history of dealing with the unpersuadable and recognized it rather quickly; it would be no easy task to get rid of Chip.  Not without revealing too much, at least.

As he considered the possibilities, however, one of his ideas had decided to act on its own as a pool of goopy blackness bubbled up underneath Chip.  Neither he nor Itara seemed to be aware of its presence, so Metal decided to remain silent and watch.  Itara was growing more frustrated and frantic by the minute, but as the ethereal blackness reached up for the creature in front of her—finally drawing their attention—she stopped and jerked back.  Chip panicked wildly, his wings fluttering faster, trying to rip away from the searching tendrils, but to little effect.

The tendrils dragged him down into the bubbling pool.  Itara watched on in shock and confusion as his tuft of white hair disappeared below them.  The pool disappeared with him before long, though as soon as it did the earth shook with a violent energy.  A sudden burst came with a short stabbing pain in Itara’s head, which she promptly shook off.  Unsure of the cause, both she and Metal quickly realized they should get away from the swaying trees before one fell.  The quake sent the park visitors scrambling, though it was hardly enough to knock anything heftier than a street sign or two over.  It was however plenty enough to knock the small third graders around, Itara included.  Metal ended up reaching down and picking her up around the waist again on the way back to the gathering class seeing as she could hardly stand on her own.

The shaking subsided soon enough having done minimal damage, leaving only shaken third graders in its wake, the energy that Itara had felt disappeared with it.  Despite the minimal damage, the teachers had decided it best to move on out of the area.  The head teacher thought it best to end the day early and return to the hotel and instructed the kids to remain together while she called for the bus.  The kids collected their belongings, regrouped around their chaperones, and waited for the bus that would take them back.  After the initial shockwave dispersed, the kids all broke out into frantic chatter while their chaperones looked on in concern.

Mostly.

Metal had instead decided to look into the source of the quake.  He couldn’t ask the doll directly just yet, not with children surrounding him, but he could at least scan the area and log the energy signatures that were given off to inspect later.  He had an idea what might have happened but he would have to confirm it with the one responsible later once he had a moment alone again.  At least they were returning to the hotel, where he could likely find a quiet place to talk.  Hopefully.

The ride back to the hotel was the noisiest trip yet, with a bus full of terrified children and the adults trying to calm them.  Itara, on the other hand, remained deadly silent the entire way, lost in her head, concerned about the energies she felt.  Not to mention what happened to Chip.  What if he returned, blamed her, and brought it to someone else’s attention?  She would need to consider all possible escape routes from the bus and the hotel as well as a plan of action once they did escape.  As long as Metal was cooperative the escape would be easy enough, but if too much attention was brought to them they might be in trouble even if they went home.

Luckily, Chip didn’t reappear during the bus ride back.  They were safe there.  Neither she nor Metal wasted any time returning to their room, though Metal arrived long before her.  Sceira would likely be longer.

Tossing her backpack on the bed, she unzipped it and pulled Kipper out, frowning at the doll, “wh-what was that?!”

“I’d also quite like to know,” Metal stated, walking over and looking over the floppy, stuffed animal in the hedgehog’s hands.

It remained flopped over for several minutes, but eventually the black of the doll’s eyes widened, a toothy grin spread across its previously mouthless muzzle, and the bright red gem lit up.  The lifeless doll lifted its head as it floated away from the little girl’s hands, looking between the two with his usual amusement.  “Whaddya mean?”

“Don’t you ‘whaddya mean’ us, Kipper,” Itara growled, “what did you do to Chip?  As annoying as he was, that was too risky.  Did you not feel the earthquake that caused?  What if he comes back and draws attention to us?  I know you like causing trouble, and I like it too, once in a while, but that was too much.”

“I’d quite like to know what that clash of energy was, as well,” Metal added.

Kipper looked between the two, the grin never moving from his face, before he pulled his little stuffed paws up in a shrug and explained, “That wasn’t me.”

Itara jerked back, nearly sending herself toppling at the motion but only stumbled until she could gain her footing again.  Metal stared at the doll, studying him carefully, looking for the lie, but closed his eyes after a moment to consider it.  Before they could discuss it any further, however, there was a knock at the door and Kipper dropped back onto the bed.  Metal sighed, but walked over to open it, letting the little grey scorpion girl in.

“You left me behind,” she stated rather indignantly, walking across to the bed.

Itara sighed and stood back up straight, glaring over at Kipper before eyeing Sceira.  As much as she wanted to get back to the hotel, she didn’t want to be stuck with Sceira for the entire day either.  “Did the teachers say anything about going back out any time soon?”  She and Metal had darted for the room so quickly that if there had been any further discussion, they hadn’t heard it.  She was hoping not, so she would have time to look into the situation.

“Only that we’ll be staying here until dinner.  At five o’clock we’ll meet back up to go out for dinner after the teachers check that everything is safe.”  Sceira ran her hand over the end of the bed, as if to contemplate, before walking further to the sitting area where she took a seat on the far end of the couch.  “You are free to roam but don’t cause trouble, Itara.”

With a final roll of her eyes, Itara grabbed the doll back up and headed for the door, “I’m going for a walk around the hotel then.  Sparky, come with me.”  For once, Metal gave no arguments and willingly followed after her.  He wanted to know more about the situation as much as she did.  If Kipper hadn’t been the source of the blackness that dragged Chip away, there were few other options and all of them were much less likely the doll.  Sceira nodded to the two as they left and Itara headed down the hall towards the elevators, wondering where the best place to have their talk would be.  The lobby would certainly be too busy and the hallways were far too easy for eavesdroppers.  There was a pool area, which would likely be just as busy as the lobby, and a couple ‘event’ rooms, though Itara was sure those would be locked.

Once they were in the elevator, before Itara could push any of the buttons, Metal reached over and pressed a hand against the control panel.  With a spark and a series of snaps and cracks, the lights in the elevator flickered violently before going out, the red backup light coming on after a second.

“That works, I suppose.”

Metal pulled his hand back and crossed his arms, turning to lean against the wall, his glowing red eyes further lighting the small, closed off room.  “That won’t last long so let’s get to the point.  Tails Doll, you were not responsible for what happened to ‘Chip’?”

The doll floated up again, shaking his head, “nope, wasn’t me.”

“But then what happened?” Itara frowned, looking between the two.

“There are a few possibilities,” Metal explained, remaining silent for a moment to run the data before focusing on Itara, “but, after Tails Doll, the next most logical explanation would be _you_.  Mephiles was able to manipulate shadows and create portals, correct?  I assume you have that ability, as well?”

Itara’s brows furrowed, “Well, yes but… I can’t…”

“You can’t access your powers, I know.  However, they _have_ been fluctuating lately, haven’t they?  You can still control your eye colors, your crystals have a tendency to spike when you get upset, and you saw an alternate timeline in the city, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know for sure that’s what that was, though,” she frowned, crossing her arms and looking down in thought.  “I suppose you may be right but…”

“It would explain the quake that happened afterwards, as well.”

“Why?”

“I’m fairly certain ‘Chip’ is actually one of the Ancient Gods, or at least part of one, like you.”  Itara’s eyes shot back up, widening.  “It would explain why his energies stuck out to you.  That said, I can’t say for certain _which_ God he belongs to.  Process of elimination suggests Gaia, as his energies don’t match yours and I’ve had enough exposure to the chao to know theirs and Chaos’ readings.  Plus, it would make sense for a part of Gaia, with amnesia, to be drawn to this city.”

“So… that energy…”

“Was a clash between Gods, essentially.  Even with his amnesia, much like your powers reacting to your emotions, his sparked in his panic.  It’s likely, that had it been Tails Doll to ‘attack’ him, he simply would have broken free no problem, but because it was another God’s power he faced, it caused that reaction.  At least, that’s my theory.”

Several minutes of silence fell between them, filled with the hum of the emergency lights, as Itara contemplated it all.  If that had been her doing, why were her powers reacting so strangely?  They revealed themselves so haphazardly sometimes, but then refused to activate when she actually wanted them to.  She should at least remember to write this all down in her book once she got back to the room.  As useless as it had been since the reset.

Finally, she looked up again, questioning, “For the sake of argument, and just to cover bases, if it _wasn’t_ me… what were your other theories?”

“They grow less and less probable after that, but some other possible explanations were: Solaris, himself, for whatever reason; Dark Gaia, if that actually was the other half; or an outside source we don’t know about yet.”

“This Gaia-Guy certainly has been causing a lot of trouble lately,” Kipper grinned, “I’m a little jealous.  I need to catch up.”

Itara glared over at the doll, reaching over and grabbing him, wrapping him up in her arms, “No you don’t.  But you are right; Gaia has been more active than the others.  I haven’t seen anything from Chaos at all yet.  But that means we have to get our hands on those manuscripts sooner rather than later!”  Before she could say more, the normal elevator lights switched back on with a sharp crackle, the bright red emergency lights shutting down as the doors slid open, revealing a mechanic standing outside the door.

“Are you alright, there?”

“We’re fine,” Metal responded, stepping out of the elevator and heading back down the hall, Itara following quickly after him.  The mechanic watched after them, but nodded and stepped through to take a look at the panel to find the cause of the short.  Metal led the way back to the hotel room, letting them both in and catching Sceira’s attention while Itara headed for the bed.  She fixed Kipper into the nook of her arm while she dug around in her backpack, pulling the beat up old notebook out.  It had a scratched up black cover and ‘Itara’s Do Not Touch’ written across it with a mechanical pencil clipped onto it.

“I’m going for a longer walk, I’ll be back later,” she explained, turning back towards the door.  Metal shrugged and took a seat in one of the window sills.  She had a lot to consider and she didn’t feel like dealing with Sceira’s questions.  She went back down the hall and to the elevators, taking the opposite one, since she had no interest in ever taking the stairs, and stood quietly watching the floors go by as she ran over everything that happened that day in her head.  It had been such a long day, the morning felt like it was days ago already.  She wanted to talk to RK but her phone was off and in her suitcase back in the room, she hadn’t thought to bring it with her on her walk until she was already out of the elevator.  She would just have to call him later.

Lurking around the first level of the hotel, she studied the groups of hotel-goers as they passed by:  chatting classmates, lounging chaperones discussing the day’s events, random hotel patrons on their phones, some dressed in suits, wheeling their cases behind them, some dressed more casually with towels around their necks likely headed to the hotel’s pool.  A bellhop dashed by with a wheeled tray and several lidded platters while a number of room cleaners darted by with towels, cleaning supplies, blankets, and large sets of keys.  It was certainly an active, popular spot.

But she wanted a quiet place.

Turning a corner that was further away from the main hustle and bustle, she found one of the event rooms.  The hallway was much less populated than the previous ones so Itara ventured down it, passing only one other person along the way and eventually, out of curiosity, checked the door to the first event room.  She had absolutely expected it to be locked, and thus jumped when it opened easily.  The room was empty, with only one light on at the far end.  She glanced around, making sure she wouldn’t be caught, before darting in, closing the door behind her and walking over towards the middle of the darker wall, sliding down it and sighing heavily.

Finally.  Quiet comfort.

The room was massive, even a little cold, and dimly lit.  She could only vaguely hear the muffled noise from outside, so she pressed her ears against her head until she couldn’t hear it at all.  Closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall, a small smile escaped as she let out another, far more content, sigh.  Kipper floated back up out of her grasp, but she didn’t move for several minutes.  When she did finally open them again, Kipper’s bright red gem was glowing directly in front of her and his massive, black, swirling holes for eyes were staring her dead in the face.  It caused her to jump, her ears darting right back up, though they flattened again as she calmed, narrowing her eyes at him.  The doll grinned and moved further back, sitting on the ground in front of her as she pulled the notebook up into her lap.

“Hiding out now?”

“Just wanted some peace and quiet to think.”

“So… you brought _me_?”

Itara looked up from the notebook, studying the curious gaze on the doll, before smirking and returning to her search for a blank page, “yes.  As much of a butt as you tend to be, you and RK are…”  The grin faded as her brows furrowed, “You’re… just… comfortable to be around.  Look, it doesn’t matter.  I just wanted company and Sparky is annoying and Sceira is… _infuriating_.  So it was you.”

The doll’s laughter echoed around the empty room and sent a shiver up Itara’s spine, but she shook her head and returned to her notes.  She wanted to get every detail of the day up to that point and didn’t want to forget anything.  Details were always the most important.  Besides, it helped her clear her thoughts on everything when she wrote it all out carefully.  That was mostly what that journal had become, since her loss of powers: A way to process everything.  She found that she could form more careful decisions in the future if she fully considered the past since she could no longer travel through time to fix mistakes.  And there were plenty.


	19. School Trip Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class heads to a city shopping center for a scavenger hunt... but Metal Sonic has other ideas about the goal of the day and challenges Itara to a video game rematch.

“What do you suppose that earthquake was yesterday?”

“I don’t know.  I hope it doesn’t happen again today, though.”

“Yeah, I heard one of the teachers saying if anything more happens they’re going to cut the trip short.”

There was a brief moment of silence amongst the group of children as they walked along the busy shopping center path.  Three of the six were grouped together chatting amongst themselves, mostly about yesterday’s events.  Two were walking a step or two behind the others listening to the conversation of their classmates.  However, they preferred their own topics of conversation about the day’s plans, and how best to accomplish what they were supposed to do in the shopping center.  The last of the group was, as usual, much further back, closer to the unamused, unwilling chaperone robot that was just barely within eyesight of the group of children.

While they went about their chattering, Metal Sonic was doing his best to resist the urge to attack everyone around him, including the children he’d been put in charge of.  His proximity meters were throwing constant warnings on his internal screens, which he had to forcibly ignore as he was unable to turn them off entirely.  He was going to _destroy_ RK when he returned from this awful trip.

At some point, the children had stopped walking, allowing Metal and the straggler to catch up.  He stopped as they all looked up at him expectantly and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what they wanted.  He glanced to the straggler, wondering if she had answers, as she often seemed to when the others said nothing to his gaze.

“This is one of the stops we’re supposed to explore,” Itara explained, sounding as interested in the prospect as he looked.

Reading the sign above the small shop, he mentally sighed and crossed his arms.  It was some kind of bakery or another.  “Then what are you waiting for _me_ for?  If you know what you’re supposed to do, just do it,” he waved, turning away from them.  The day had only just started and he was already tired of it.

“You’re supposed to _chaperone_ us, not constantly leave us to our devices,” Sceira responded with a barely contained hint of annoyance.  Metal, at least, picked up on it easily enough and glanced back at the scorpion girl.  She did her best to hide it, or what he assumed was her best attempt, but it was all too easy for him to read the constant irritation she held with both him and Itara.  It would be amusing if it wasn’t equally infuriating.  He was being bossed around by an actual _child_.  Itara was much older than she appeared and not even she got away with bossing him about, Sceira was exactly the age she appeared.

It would be all too easy to abandon them all right now, though.

He was under no one’s control any longer and he had all his limbs again.  If he wanted to, he could leave right then and never return and never have to deal with any of these children, demi-gods, or _haunted dolls_ again.  RK would be furious with him for leaving the Mephiles-spawn on her own, but how much did Metal honestly care?  She clearly still had access to her powers somehow, even if she didn’t know how to control them, they were still there.  If push came to shove, he didn’t doubt she could defend herself.  Besides, how much mortal danger could a splice of a God possibly ever be in?  Even if she ‘died’, wouldn’t she just return to the rest of Solaris?

Glancing down towards the children again, while the others were staring up at him with a mix of concern and confusion, the tiny immortal was staring off elsewhere, her ears pinned against her head.  Curious of her sudden focus, he followed her eyesight to a shop across the path with a bright, neon sign and a number of colorful paintings and decorations on the window.  An arcade.

Well, he did have a score to settle, now that he had his other arm.

He would defeat her at her ‘games’ first, then maybe he would take off.  It’s not like he wouldn’t have time later, after all.

Looking back to the other children, then back towards the shop they were supposed to be inspecting, he gave it a moment of thought before finally motioning towards the door.  “Fine, then.  Head in and get this over with already,” he stated flatly, grabbing Itara’s attention again, as the children filed inside, Itara and Metal taking up the rear, as usual.  The children went right to searching for the answers to their questions, filling out packets similar to the ones from the art museum.  Metal remained near the door but Sceira went to the counter to ask more direct questions.

After a quick conversation in the back, the owner came out and offered to give the children a tour of the back and explain how everything was made.  Deciding that was his opportunity, Metal grabbed a small bead from the shop window and flicked it at the back of Itara’s head, putting a finger up to silence her when she looked back and nodded towards the door before leaving the little bakery.  Itara glared between him and her classmates, making sure they weren’t paying attention to her before following him outside.

“What was that for?!” she hissed, glaring up at him, though he gave no answer and instead only nodded again, this time towards the arcade.  Itara looked back and forth between the shop and the arcade for a moment, unsure, but finally nodded and followed him across the street.  She only cared about the bakery for the potential of getting a free cookie but she hadn’t even seen cookies in the outer room so she dismissed the idea.  They were all Danishes and fancy cakes that hardly looked edible.

“I have both my arms now and RK isn’t here to let you win, so I have a score to settle with you, Left-Foot,” Metal warned, getting a handful of the tokens they would need.

“That just sounds like a lot of excuses as to why I _beat_ you, Sparky,” Itara grinned, scouting the games out and moving to a fighting game, though changed her mind quickly enough and moved, instead, to a side-scrolling beat-em-up.

Metal, however, grinned at the sudden change, “And yet, you didn’t want to play the fighting game.”

“Sh-Shut up!  Get over here and f-fight!”

Metal gave a short laugh, but followed and handed her half the tokens, saying nothing more as they started the game.  The opening cinematic played and the two characters, hardly any different in model besides the colors, appeared with witty one-liners to open the first stage.  The game, itself, was little more than an old-school side-scroller, but both Metal Sonic and Itara took the challenge with an intensity fellow arcade goers couldn’t help but notice.

Neither of them said a single word to the other as they caught the attention of a stray gaze, followed by another curious mobian that caught sight of the first one watching.  A couple that had just finished their game and was walking past stopped to watch, adding to the group, but it went entirely unnoticed by either players.  Metal Sonic’s screens alerted him to the approaching bodies but it continued to remain background noise as he focused on the game.  Itara blocked it out completely.

With the first stage cleared and a short cut-scene playing, Itara’s ears perked back up after they’d been pressed so firmly against her head, catching the sound of someone else pushing their way through the small ring of watchers.  Metal Sonic kept his sights on the game, but Itara glanced towards them, frowning when she saw Sceira and the other girl in their group.

“Excuse me, but this is not what we’re supposed to be doing here today,” Sceira scowled once the girl she’d brought informed her that the two were aware of her presence.  The small crowd looked down at the girls while Itara hissed under breath.  Metal remained silent, not wanting to be pulled away from the game, but sighed after a short mental debate and stood back up at straight, turning to the children.

“Did you finish your tour?”

“Yes.  We did.  Not that Itara will know what we learned now,” Sceira growled.

“Not that Itara cares, either,” Itara muttered under her breath, glaring towards the screen.  They were about to lose a life if they didn’t get back to the game.  Metal came to the same realization but internally sighed.  He and Itara could come back to the arcade later, he supposed.  They were staying in the general area throughout most the day, there’d likely be a better time to slip away unnoticed.

“Fine, fine, let’s move onto the next thing then, I suppose,” he shrugged, walking away from the arcade cabinet and following the children out of the building.  Itara looked between them and the game a couple times, the distress of losing their progress more evident on her face than it had been on Metal’s, before sighing dramatically and following, as well.  She knew having Sceira in their group would ruin all her fun!

With considerably more reluctance, the group moved on to the next stop, much slower than Metal would have preferred due to the children’s need to stop and stare and explore everything along the way.  Itara’s clumsy footing and the crowds didn’t do much to help, either, as more than once the tiny immortal got tripped up by shopper in a rush or a stray crack in the pavement.  Metal was starting to understand why RK carried her everywhere, left to her own devices, and without the ability to float, she _was_ entirely left-footed.  He was having a hard time deciding between letting her trip about for his own amusement or picking her up and saving them all some time.

Once she started lagging behind after the third stop, he waited until she caught up before grabbing her around the waist, catching the tiny hedgehog by surprise, and lifting her up onto his shoulders.  He smirked at the squawk of surprise before wiping it quickly from his face.  “You’re too slow.”

Itara’s cheeks puffed, glaring down at the robot, before glaring off to the side, mumbling incoherently under her breath.  The other kids in the group looked back and up at them, a look of amusement spreading across a couple of their faces, but after recalling the warning from Itara, turned back towards the street to continue their search for the next location.  It was at this next location that Metal realized they had another opportunity to escape back to the arcade, noting that having Itara on his shoulders sped the trip up and they could get at least a couple rounds of _something_ in and be back before the others noticed.

However, as soon as the children were distracted and he walked out of the building to take off in a sprint back down the street, another group of Itara’s classmates walked up from the opposite side.  Though, unlike their group, this group comprised of two others and was a considerable _horde_ coming their way.  It would be harder to escape unnoticed.  While Metal managed to resist a sigh of frustration, Itara was less in control of her verbal reactions and gave a quiet curse from her spot.

Of course, as soon as Metal recognized one of the other parents as Susan, he found it increasingly difficult to keep his own curse under control.

“Oh, Itara, Sparky!  Funny seeing you here!” the other woman called once she spotted them, giving a wave while Susan only reacted to their presence with a silent scowl.  Metal, however, only scowled back at Itara for the ever-present nickname.  Did RK _really_ have to use it for this trip?!  He couldn’t come up with _anything_ else?!  Itara avoided his gaze when he glared back at her, however, prompting him to remove her from his shoulders.  They wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon so there was no need for him to continue carrying her.  She pouted for only a moment when she was returned to the ground, but turned back towards the rest of her group after a moment.

“Considering we’re all around this shopping center for several hours today, I find it highly unlikely that our meeting is anything but inevitable,” Metal anguished, crossing his arms and looking away from them all.

“Unfortunately,” Susan added, looking away, as well, before returning her attention to Itara, “shouldn’t you be with the rest of your group rather than out here?  Surely you aren’t relying on the others to answer the questions for you?”

Itara’s eyes narrowed, glaring at Susan over her shoulder before returning her gaze to the shop, “maybe I’ve already answered it and they’re all just being slow.”

“Then you should be making sure everyone has the correct answer.”

There was a brief moment of silence as Metal resisted the urge to silence the woman, himself, and Itara debated a retort.  Before long, however, the other woman interrupted in an attempt to lighten the tense atmosphere, turning her attention to Metal, “Have you been around this area before?”

“I have.”

“It’s such an interesting city, isn’t it?  I’ve never been here before this trip but I’ve always wanted to visit.”  Metal glanced towards the two women.  Susan, he was aware lived on their street and often associated with Lynda.  The other, he believed, was named Veronica, another human.  There were so many of those around this area, Soleanna and Spagonia.  Though perhaps that was for the better, a mobian would be more likely to recognize him, not that humans wouldn’t.  At least these humans seemed mostly unaware of his existence, though he questioned how much of that was from the reset timeline and how much was from their natural ignorance.  In any case, he was unsure why they were suddenly so keen on talking to him.

“You’re awfully tall for a mobian, though.  I’ve met a lot of the other parents at the school, including the mobians, you and Itara’s other guardian are… rather tall compared to… well, all of them,” Veronica continued.

Metal glanced down towards Itara, unsure of how to answer, only to find that she had already taken off to return to their group, leaving him alone with the human women.  That little brat.  Looking up again, he gave it a quick thought, shrugging, “I suppose.  Maybe they’re all short.”  In their original designs, both he and RK more closely resembled Sonic and Knuckles, being the same height and build as their mobian counterparts.  It was only after years of upgrades and perfecting that they reached their current height and builds.

Veronica laughed, though Metal wasn’t sure what she could possibly have thought was funny, but Susan only narrowed her eyes further, studying him sharply.  As much as he didn’t trust any of them, he trusted that one the least.  Her eyes were constantly scanning, studying, judging, hunting for exploitations.  More than any of them, this one couldn’t learn of their true nature.  It was best they all kept their distance from Susan.

“Hey, some of us chaperones are planning to go out for drinks later tonight, after all the kids are back at the hotel and in for the night.  Would you like to come?” Veronica offered, smiling, the question sparking a scowl from Susan.

“I’m not interested.”  It’s not like he could drink, anyway.

Veronica’s smile faded, but only for a brief moment, turning instead to an almost starry gaze, “Oh, I see.  Is it because you’d rather stay near the kids?  I suppose if all of us go out, no one would be around to watch them.  But we’re just going to the bar connected to the hotel, we wouldn’t be far.”

Metal had to debate this for a moment.  As little as he actually cared about any of the children, or their chaperones, for that matter, it did offer a better excuse for his disinterest.  How covert was this operation, exactly, though?  How much interest was he required to show in the others?  RK didn’t explain enough of this situation to him.  Then again… he rarely had to interact with others.  Yet RK did it daily, and had been for some time.  Well, Metal could handle this.  If RK could do it, so could he.

“I need to keep a close eye on Itara,” he explained.  “It’s been some time since she’s been away from RK for such a long period of time and we’re unsure how she’ll react.  So far she seems to be fine, but the longer it is, the worse she might get.”

“Oh?  Poor girl, does she not deal with separation well?”

“Not particularly, no.”  Metal scanned through his files quickly and continued, “She’s very dependent at times, and it’s why I’m on this trip.  RK was unable to come, himself, so he asked me to accompany her to ensure she’d be alright.”

“How sweet of you to do that for them, then,” Veronica smiled, “I heard the poor girl went through a rough time right at the beginning of the school year so it’s nice to hear she has such a supportive family taking care of her.”

Right.  RK shared those files with him just recently.  After the reset, they ran into the mobian parents of the child he kidnapped for the experiment, only for them to die in a house fire not long after.  Even Metal could tell how upset Itara was about the ordeal, her attempts at hiding it were subpar at best and he had caught her regular attempt to pretend they never existed nowadays.  It was a fine enough excuse, he supposed.

“RK certainly makes sure she’s well taken care of,” he smirked, glancing towards the returning group of children, Itara in-tow.  “Isn’t that right, Left-Foot?”

Itara glared up at him when she heard him, looking between him and the other adults, crossing her arms, “I don’t know, but for my own sake I’m going to say ‘no’.  What are you talking about?”

“Your Momma Bear.”

“You should stop picking up nicknames from Kipper.”

“You should stop picking nicknames altogether.”

“Who is Kipper?”

Itara and Metal both looked to Susan, remaining silent before Metal explained, “An annoyance.”  Turning back to the children now, he questioned, “Did you finish here?”  Getting nods from them all, he continued, “then we should continue so we can hurry and finish.”

“Actually, it’s just about lunch time, isn’t it?” Veronica asked, looking at her watch before smiling at Metal again, “we’re all supposed to meet up again for lunch so why don’t we all just head there together?”

“Right… lunch.”  At least Susan appeared no less frustrated with the suggestion than Metal felt, it seemed she wasn’t overly fond of his presence, either.  It briefly sparked a need to stick around longer, just to inconvenience her as much as he could, but he no longer deemed the prospect worthy after a moment of thought.  Instead, he pulled Itara back up onto his shoulders and motioned for their group to continue on.  Whether Susan and Veronica followed was their decision.  Veronica apparently decided for them, collecting the rest of the children and following after him.  For the purpose of talking to him still.

“At least with everyone back together again it’ll give us some much needed rest, right?  We’ll finally be able to sit down for a little while.”

“I’m not so easily tired out,” Metal responded coldly.  His energy reserves may not have been in peak condition due to the damage, but that didn’t mean a couple hours walking around a city shopping center at a snail’s pace would deplete them so easily.

“Really?  I envy you, then.  I’m afraid I’m already starting to get tired out,” Veronica gave an uneasy laugh, “What about you, Itara?  Looking forward to lunch?”

Itara, who had been shifting about on Metal’s shoulders trying to find a comfortable position since he wasn’t fluffy like RK, stopped squirming just long enough to look over at the other parent.  She didn’t even know whose mom it was, since she at least knew she wasn’t a teacher, and was curious why she was so set on talking to Metal at the moment.  “I s-suppose.  I am hungry,” she stammered, looking away again, “Sparky, you aren’t as comfortable as RK.”

Metal glared up at her, “Would you rather walk?  The only reason I’m carrying you is because you’re so _slow_.  I can just as easily leave you behind, Left-Foot.”

Itara went back to grumbling while Veronica gave another short laugh, gaining her a side-eyed glance from both of them.  When she noticed, she threw her hands up in defense, explaining, “Sorry, it’s just cute listening to your banter.  You must really be close.”  Itara’s face flushed up at the insinuation, moving to cross her arms but after a panicked flail, quickly grabbed back onto Metal’s head.  Metal only glared and huffed, preparing to deny her claims, but remembered his earlier statement and remained silent.  Perhaps he should at least pretend to care about the tiny child’s well-being.  For now.  Besides, he was sure Itara would launch into a denial soon, anyway.

The rest of the walk to the lunch destination was hardly silent.  Veronica was plenty talkative, though not nearly as pushy as Lynda, nor prying as Susan, and the children were hardly any different.  Though at least the children kept their conversations amongst themselves, Veronica and Susan practically demanded Metal’s constant attention the entire walk.  They asked about his work, his relationship with Itara, his past with RK, the apparent ‘injuries’ he sustained at ‘work’ –which Itara had to answer for him –even at one point suggesting he should join the school’s ‘PTA’, whatever that was.  Metal had no interest in any of it and wanted nothing more than to return to the safety and silence of the lab back home.

By the time they finally reached the restaurant, and met back up with the rest of Itara’s class, Metal was in desperate need of an escape.  Setting Itara back down again, he informed her that he was going for another run and would be back soon, but once again, he was stopped before he could get far.  What hellish influence did these organics command?!  Turning, once again, to Veronica’s curious gaze, he gave a short ‘what’ and resisted the urge to start tapping his foot.

“You don’t want to get lunch first?”

“No.  Now, if you’ll excuse me-.”

“You should at least get something ordered before you take off, otherwise you might miss the chance to eat.”

Metal’s claws flexed as he strained to keep his temper in check, getting tired of the humans are their constant interruptions.  As his eyes glowed with his frustrations, however, Itara edged her way back over and grabbed Veronica’s attention.  Whether she picked up on his mood or simply demanded the attention, he didn’t know nor care.  All he saw was a brief moment to finally escape and wasted no time in taking it.  He was out the door and gone before Itara could even finish her sentence.

Itara watched the empty space behind him a moment before shaking her head and turning her attention to Veronica, “C-Can you help me find the b-bathroom, please?  It’s so… there’s so many of us it’s hard to move… and I’m so much smaller…”

Veronica looked back towards the door, blinking, but returned her attention to the small hedgehog asking her help and smiled, “Of course.  Come on.”  Itara took her hand once she held it out to her and they skirted their way around the large group of children to find the bathrooms, which were at the back of the restaurant and required a bit of snaking through people to reach.


	20. Expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Metal's taken off on a run, leaving Itara to deal with lunch -and Susan- on her own.

Itara waved Veronica off once they returned from the bathroom, waiting until she left to rejoin her own group before turning to get her lunch.  She spent a couple extra minutes in the bathroom to quietly talk with Kipper since she hadn’t had the chance to since they left the hotel, so by the time she returned everyone else was sat down and either waiting on their food or were already eating.  Scanning the room to check for Metal, she continued to the counter to let them know which number she was on the list the school sent and then moved off to the side to wait for it, watching the dining hall.

It was a busy enough place, even without the entirety of her class taking up almost every table in the surprisingly spacious restaurant.  It looked smaller from the outside, being just another door and window amongst many like everything else in the area, but the inside spread out rather far in the other three directions.  The restaurant was a nicer, yet still cozy, seafood place that had paintings and sculptures of all manner of sea creature all around the walls and even hanging from the ceiling.  The walls were painted a light teal and the floor was a deep blue tile and matching covers were spread across all the tables.  Even the tables and chairs were painted and sculpted in a matching style, giving it a wholly put-together look.

Rocking back and forth on her heels as she waited, Itara glanced around for her own group, wondering if they were all sitting together or had dispersed out amongst the other students again.  It didn’t take her long to find Sceira, at least, as even amongst mobians her pincers were noticeable, and with them she found the rest of the group, as well.  All five of them, with two extra, empty chairs at the table.

Were they saving her and Metal a spot?

She only had a moment to debate it, as one of the restaurant waiters brought a boxed lunch out to her.  He gave her a strange look, probably because she was standing off to the side instead of sitting at a table, but said nothing and left her to decide whether she would join the group or not.  One of the chairs was next to Sceira.  How much did she want to spend all lunch with her?

Then again, the rest of the dining hall was rather full and it wasn’t like there were any single-seating options.  Unless she wanted to eat against the wall or on the floor, the table with her group was her only real option.  Taking a breath, she headed towards the table, forcing the smile off her face and keeping the same look of disinterest she preferred.

Until Camilla sat in the seat she was headed for.

Susan took the chair beside her, filling the seats around the table, before Itara could get halfway across the room.

Oh.

Now that she thought about it, of course Sceira would be saving the spot for Camilla, and of course Susan would be with her, too.  Pressing her ears flat against her head, she turned on her heel and continued in another direction, trying to give the impression she was headed that way the entire time.  Why would she want to sit with them, anyway?  She hated Sceira and it’s not like she had any particular interest in getting so close to the others, either.

But now she had the problem of finding an open spot.  She wasn’t exactly close with anyone else in her class, either, and she couldn’t sit with complete strangers.  Even her teachers were all sat at a table together with no open spots and Metal wasn’t back from his run yet.  Returning to the same wall she’d been at, she scanned the room again, trying to ignore the occasional strange glance that was thrown her way. She huffed angrily as turned on her heel, nearly tripping over her own foot in the process, and stumbled her way back towards the bathroom.  It was down a long, empty hallway.  She would just go sit…

Alone.

Again.

Then again, there was a staff-only entrance to the kitchen down the hall, and anyone who needed to use the restroom would see her not-so-hidden spot easily enough.  She didn’t want a repeat of New Years.  Simon wasn’t there because he was in a grade above them, but Camilla was.  Sighing heavily, she continued into the bathroom and locked herself in the largest stall.  At least she could hide and if anyone asked she could just say she had a stomach ache.

Dropping her backpack, she opened the flap to let Kipper out before sitting on it so she wasn’t sitting on a dirty bathroom floor to eat lunch.  Once the doll floated up and looked around, he gave her a questioning look that she promptly ignored and opened her boxed lunch.

“I know you’ve probably hunkered down in worse places, all things considered, but a bathroom stall is a strange choice for lunch,” Kipper smirked, floating around the spacious area.

“Shut up, Kipper.”

The doll looked back at her before shrugging and floating to sit on the metal bar behind her.  “So when do I get to have fun today?  You haven’t let me out all day, it’s cramped in there.”

“I haven’t had an opportunity to do anything,” Itara muttered, poking at the fried shrimp in her lunch.  “Sceira’s been watching too closely today.”

“Where did Sparks run off to?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you wanna bet he runs off and leaves you here?” the doll grinned, watching with amusement as Itara’s ears pressed tightly against her head, curling into herself further.

“Wh-What would I… c-care?  I don’t need him.”

“Sure.  Sure.  I bet he-,” though his next taunt was stopped short by the bathroom door swinging open and Sceira calling out.

“Itara?  Are you in here?”

Itara mentally sighed, dropping her head and considering not answering for a moment.  Why could she never be left alone when she wanted to be?  “What do you want, Sceira?”

“Are you alright?  The others said you’ve been in here for a while.”  From her position on the ground, Itara could see the pincers swaying back and forth as the scorpion girl walked closer to the stall door.

“I-I’m f-fine!  Just… a stomach ache,” Itara frowned, her voice wavering more than usual at her lie.

There was a moment of silence before Sceira walked away again, “Okay well, when you come out, we saved you a seat.”  What?  “We had to grab one from another table since Camilla decided to sit with us instead of her group, but we found one that wasn’t in use.”  Itara sat up straighter again, looking towards the door, her previously pinned ears perked in surprise.  She could only offer a weak ‘I’ll be out in a minute’ before Sceira left again, but had to sit back and debate again.  So they did save her a seat?

She took a moment to calm herself again, putting the lid back on her lunch and standing up, exchanging glances with Kipper, though grew red in the face at his smirk.  “Sh- _shut up, Kipper_.”  The doll only laughed and moved back into her backpack so she could close it up and leave the room.  She took a deep breath before leaving, but skulked back towards the table seeing that were was, in fact, an extra chair on the other side of Sceira that hadn’t been there before.  Everyone at the table had even shifted positions to accommodate it.  Luckily, Metal still wasn’t back from his run.  Maybe he did finally decide to leave on his own.  She couldn’t completely blame him, but it did complicate her situation.

Her arrival at the table caught the attention of everyone sitting around it, causing her face to redden further at all the gazes so suddenly falling on her.

“Sceira said your stomach hurt, are you feeling better?” one of the other kids questioned as she slid into the chair.

“Y-Yeah,” she stammered, keeping her eyes down and on her box, “I’m… fine.”

“Where did your… _guardian_ go?  He seems to have disappeared,” Susan questioned from her apparently stolen chair.

“He, uh… doesn’t really handle crowds well so he went for a walk.  He’ll probably meet back up with us after lunch… or something,” Itara frowned, poking at her food again.  Or something.  For all she knew, he wouldn’t _be_ back.  That would be hard to explain.

“Oh man, Itara you got shrimp?!  I’ll trade you one for some of my fries!  I couldn’t decide which one I wanted and ended up going with the crab cake but I’m totally jealous of your shrimp now!”

Itara’s face twisted into confusion as she looked up at her classmate, who was holding three of his larger fries out to her.  Why should she care if he picked the wrong dish?  That was his problem.  Then again, she didn’t get fries with her lunch, and she did like them a lot, too.  It wasn’t like he wanted her cookies, at least, maybe she could share _just one_ of her shrimps.  Finally nodding, she held the box out to him to let him pick one, watching a wide grin spread across his face as he dropped the fries in her box and grabbed a shrimp, exclaiming excitedly about it.  If he wanted shrimp so badly, why did he pick the crab?

Conversations broke out amongst the group again, once the distraction of Itara’s appearance passed, and while Itara attempted to only sit and study them all, Sceira was determined to drag her into as many conversations as possible.  Much to Camilla’s dismay, Itara could tell.  On the one hand, it’s not like she liked Sceira any better, but seeing Camilla’s resentment over her inclusion lit a vicious spitefulness in Itara’s mind.  She wanted to join more conversations to frustrate her further, and thus ended up having several lengthy discussions with her fellow classmates she otherwise never would have.

Before Itara even realized it, lunch was coming to a close and- realizing again that Metal still hadn’t returned-felt a small knot tie up in her stomach.  She had been hoping he would come back, as little as she expected him to, and the idea of having to explain his absence to everyone put her on edge.  As everyone shuffled about, gathering boxes and silverware and backpacks before continuing out the door, she went silent again, following her group out.  How was she supposed to handle this?  Why couldn’t he have at least waited until they were back at the hotel to leave?!  If they were at the hotel, she would have had her phone and could have given RK a call to ask him what to do, but she didn’t bring it out with her.

She sighed as she glanced down the street where they came from, hoping he was just waiting outside, but found no such luck.  Metal Sonic was nowhere to be seen.   Turning back towards her group, mentally working on an excuse for his absence, she watched the rest of the groups disperse again.  Before long, only Susan and Veronica’s groups remained, in addition to her own.  Great.  As if dealing with her own group wasn’t going to be bad enough, she had to combat Susan now, too.  Dammit, Sparky!

When the others finally took notice of the final chaperone’s absence, all eyes fell to Itara in curiosity and concern.  “Hey, where’s Sparky?”  “He’s not back from his walk yet?”  “Man, I hope he didn’t get lost!”  Itara almost laughed at the last comment, knowing he was anything but lost.  But maybe she could use that as the excuse for why he wasn’t there.

“M-Maybe,” she stammered, looking away, “We should… I’m sure if we wait… he’ll show up soon.”

“It’s rather irresponsible,” Susan scoffed, “leaving you children on your own like this.”

As mad at Metal as she was, the tone in Susan’s voice infuriated Itara far more as she swung around to face her, scowling, “He’ll be back!”  _No he won’t._

“He did disappear rather quickly as soon as we arrived,” Veronica added, frowning and looking in the direction they all came from, as Itara had done.  She was noticeably less abrasive than Susan, but it still got under Itara’s skin in a way she couldn’t fully explain.  She didn’t even care what they thought of Sparky, he was a jerk, anyway.  If it was RK they were judging it would be a different matter, altogether, but even she had already assumed Metal had abandoned them.  She didn’t know why she was getting defensive, but she could do little to stop herself.

“I told you, he just doesn’t like crowds.  He’ll be back!”  _He has no reason to come back._   “He has to come back.  RK will be mad if he doesn’t come back.”  _Why would that stop him?_   “He wouldn’t leave, he _wouldn’t_.”  Her body shook violently as she reached up and wrapped her hands around her ears, which were pressed firmly against her head.

“ _He can’t abandon me._ ”  Everyone around her went silent, though whether it was because they stopped talking or if she just couldn’t hear them, she didn’t know, but she curled further in on herself, shutting her eyes tightly.

She didn’t even know why she was panicking like this.  It was just Sparky.  She expected him to leave a long time ago, even RK hadn’t fully expected him to stay as long as he had, this was inevitable.  The timing was unfortunate, but she avoided getting attached to him for this exact reason, he was too unpredictable.  She barely expected Kipper to stick around as long as he had.  Her reaction was senseless, she knew, but she could do nothing to stop it, either.  Hearing Susan voice what she’d silently feared made it real, undeniable; her chest hurt and her legs felt weak.  She wanted to escape.  To the past, the future, another timeline, anywhere but here, anywhere but now.  But she couldn’t.  She was stuck.

She had no control over her powers.

She had no control over her emotions.

She had no control over those around her.

And the only one who could fix it had abandoned her.

He left her.

_Itara._

He wasn’t coming back.

“Itara.”

He wouldn’t-

“Itara!”

Itara’s breathing was heavy and uneven and her eyes burned when she opened them again.  Her chest felt tight and her ears tinged with a sharp pain when she flicked them up.  Her entire body felt stiff, but it was the arms wrapped tightly around her that kept her from moving far as the world around her returned to her sight.  Tall buildings, a blue sky, a warm breeze, and glowing red eyes.

A mechanical imitation of an eyebrow rose as she slowly regained her composure and spatial awareness.  Turning hot in the face as recognition finally sparked, she reached up to wrap her arms around the thin neck of the confused robot.  “You c-came back.”

“I told you I was just going for a run,” Metal stated, albeit slowly as he studied the tiny hedgehog.  He had gone on an especially long run this time, needing to clear his thoughts and cool his engines, but it had been no different than the last time he took off for a run.  Although, this time when he returned, Itara was in a catatonic state on the sidewalk, digging her nails into her ears with hints of her crystals sparking at the tips of her spines.  He’d only picked her up in an attempt to hide them as her classmates were completely surrounding her in their concern.

Susan had been unusually quiet since his return, considering Itara’s apparent episode, causing him to eye her suspiciously as he waited for the little girl to stop clinging to his neck.  When he got little in the way of an answer, he voiced his question to the group, “what even happened?”  Not that he actually cared, but if Momma Bear found out about this it would be better to have more information ready for him.

“We don’t know,” one of the children answered in the place of the silent adults.

“Camilla’s mom started asking about you not being here and Itara freaked out.”

Veronica moved towards him first, despite Susan apparently being the inciter of the incident, and spoke to him quietly, “I think it might have been what you were mentioning to me earlier.  About her having issues being away from home.”  Metal had a feeling there was more to this than that, but only nodded and turned his attention back to the tiny, shaking hedgehog that still clung to him.  Somehow, she looked even smaller than usual.

“Well, they have their chaperone now, we should continue on our way,” Susan finally spoke, turning away from all of them.  “I only wanted to stay to make sure the kids weren’t left unattended.  Come along, kids.”

The children in Susan’s group, Camilla, included, cast a final glance towards Metal and Itara before following silently after their chaperone.  Veronica waited a moment and offered a small apology before taking off with her group, as well, leaving Metal alone with Itara and the five other children again.  At least it was a smaller group, but he was still stuck with children and now a catatonic Itara.

“Yeah, alright, I suppose we should finish what we started, as well.  What’s the next stop on your list?”  He wanted to get the kids distracted again so he could talk with Itara and find out what actually happened.  He didn’t want to do that with all the staring eyes of the other children.  Well, four sets of staring eyes and one set of much sharper ears.  He’d need to be cautious of what Sceira could likely hear over the others.  It took some prodding but he finally got the other children back on track, waving their concerns about Itara aside for the time being and letting the tiny girl continue to cling.  He had been planning to carry her, anyway, it didn’t much matter how.

It only took another stop before the children’s attention was shifted, at least, and once they went into the next shop, he remained outside to try and pry the strangely silent hedgehog off his neck to talk with her.  It was easier than he had been expecting, though she hardly seemed calmer, just less stiff.  “So what actually happened then?  RK’s going to want an explanation as to why your ears are nearly torn through.”

Apparently this was new information to the small girl as she reached rather slowly up to touch her ears, cringing when she hit the sore spot.  “I… I don’t know,” she stammered, keeping her eyesight down.  He’d only just noticed that the whites of her eyes were a deep magenta.  He wondered if she was even aware, herself.

“Well calm yourself down first because you can only hide so much.”  When she looked up at him in confusion, he pulled one of her longer spines around to show her the tiny crystals and continued, “Your eyes are also turning colors.”  A small squeak of a noise escaped as she shut her eyes tightly, purposely slowing her breath in an attempt to calm herself.  Though he assumed her eye color would change back before long, he wondered if she could get the crystals to disperse so easily.  According to a memory RK shared with him, it often took a full night’s sleep to calm her enough to get rid of crystals.  At least they were small.  Maybe she could pass them off as decorations.

Once she was calmer, she opened her eyes again to reveal that they’d turned back and Metal nodded, “Alright, now I want an explanation.  What caused this… episode?  It’ll be inconvenient if it happens again.”

Itara huffed indignantly, but sighed, “I don’t know… I just… I thought you left.  For good.  N-Not that I care, mind you, I expected as much but… when Susan brought it up with that _infuriating tone_ of hers, it… frustrated me.  But then Veronica mentioned how quick you were to leave and I got more frustrated and… upset.  I…”  She stopped, closing her eyes again and taking a deep breath.  When she spoke again, her voice reclaimed its lost composure, “I lost control of my emotions.  It won’t happen again.”

Metal’s brow lifted again at the shift, scoffing, “Child, you’ve never had control of your emotions.  If Iblis had been sealed in you instead of Elise, he would have been freed years before he was meant to be.”  A string of disgruntled, indignant stammers escaped the small girl as she grew red in the face again, trying to find coherent words to express her fury as she scowled up at him.  He only grinned in response and laughed, “My point, exactly.”

She huffed again, crossing her arms and glaring off, before her expression calmed ever so slightly and she reached up to lightly rub her ears.  Metal watched her curiously, wondering what all went through her head during her ‘episode’ but decided he would ask later, back at the hotel.  Though they got a free moment from the group of children, they were still in a busy shopping center, surrounded by humans and mobians, alike.  It was no place for a lengthy discussion about the inner workings of a time god’s mind.

Instead, he scanned the sidewalks, eventually spotting a pinball machine setup outside a grocery store and flicked the little hedgehog’s nose to get her attention.  When she scowled up at him again, he pointed to the machine and grinned, getting a weary smirk from her before too long and walked them over to it.  They hadn’t been able to get back to the arcade just yet, but surely they had enough time for a quick game of pinball.

Except their ‘quick’ pinball match was much longer than the average and by the time either of them even reached their second ball, the children had rejoined them again.  Sceira voiced her aggravations with their ‘gaming addiction’, but was quickly enough overruled by the other four children that wanted to see how the battle panned out.  Just like before, it was a battle for the highest score, but this time Metal required no assistance from RK and he was determined to take his rightful place as winner back from the tiny cheater.

It was hardly a battle.  As close as Itara thought she was to beating him, and as much of an advantage as a several-hundred-year-old demi-god might have had over anyone else, she was still no match for such an advanced AI.  By the final ball, he had her score doubled and came out the victor, followed by hollers of excitement from the children surrounding them.  Itara pouted and called him a cheater, but he paid it no mind as he pulled her back up onto his shoulders and continued on down the street.

“Let’s hurry and finish this scavenger hunt of yours so we can go back to the hotel.  I am in desperate need of a recharge,” Metal sighed, motioning for the children to lead again, as they were the ones with the packets and the hints to the destinations.  He could have easily grabbed Itara’s and given them the answers, and debated doing so several times, but then he would be left to amuse six children for an entire day and that sounded worse than following them through a busy shopping center.

The closer they got to the end, the more parents and classmates they ran into, eventually meeting back up with Veronica, though she wasn’t with Susan by that time.  Neither Metal nor Itara had any interest in asking why, either, and only vaguely acknowledged Veronica’s presence.  They’d both had enough of the other parents for the day.  As they grouped up near the pick-up point, Susan joined them and Camilla found her way to Sceira’s side to talk about the day.  More than once, Itara caught the other girl glaring at her before looking away again, but Itara didn’t have the energy to care anymore.  The day had been long and exhausting and she just wanted to go back to the hotel and maybe call RK, or at least text him.

Even Metal remained quiet and thoughtful during the ride back to the hotel.  Itara only bugged him once to quietly ask if the hotel would be able to sufficiently charge him and he gave barely more than a grunt in response, crossing his arms and ‘closing’ his eyes.  She briefly wondered if he was capable of shorting the entire hotel but resisted the urge to ask, in case he tried it just to prove he could.  As entertaining as that would be, she didn’t feel like dealing with a hotel-wide outage after such a long day, since it would likely cause a considerable panic amongst everyone else.  No, she would prefer the rest of her evening to be quiet.


	21. Game Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara's pissed and just wants to sit in a corner and play her video games alone... too bad no one's going to let her.

Itara huffed angrily and grabbed her game, storming out the door.  She said nothing on the way out of the hotel room and didn’t even bring the possessed doll as she normally did, grabbing the attention of the robot that had been headed for his usual window spot.  After a short mental debate, he followed after her.  Sceira, on the other hand, was getting comfortable on the couch.  It had been uncomfortably silent amongst the three since their return and Itara had immediately grabbed her handheld from her bag and left as soon as they arrived.

She’d barely passed the door she slammed shut before Metal reached her, getting a vicious scowl for doing so, but he continued on in a similar silence until they were back at the elevator.  He wouldn’t short it this time, though, as twice in as many days would raise suspicion.

Itara wasted no time flicking her game open again and glaring at the screen, but Metal had no intention of letting her play in her silence.  “So what actually happened today?”

“I told you already,” the angry hedgehog growled, not moving her eyes from her screen.

“No, I want the whole story.  What caused your… episode?”

“What do you care?”

“Between the spike in your powers, the increase of Ancient God activities, and the sheer magnitude and possibilities of your previous powers, _episodes_ have dangerous consequences with you.  I’d like to know what I’m dealing with in case you snap one of these days.  Mephiles, alone, was capable of altering a number of timelines at once.  Solaris tried to destroy everything and succeeded in resetting our time.  _Small_ as you may be, you’re still a dangerous creation running rampant with no control over her powers.”

There was a moment of silence again before Itara sighed heavily, closing her game and dropping her arms and head.  Metal could almost see the rage vaporizing off her as her shoulders slumped forward and her ears pressed against her head.  “Not that any of it matters, the spikes in my powers are all I have anymore… I wish they’d just make up their mind and either leave entirely or give me control again.  As it is, they’re more trouble than they’re worth.”  Metal raised an eyebrow as the tiny hedgehog stiffened, though from what he couldn’t tell, before her shoulders dropped again.

When she said no more, he glanced up towards the elevator floor numbers, then back down again, studying her carefully before turning his gaze to the far wall.  He was wary of this silence from the normally cocky, brazen little time traveler, unsure if it was a ruse of some sort to put him off his guard or not.  The time travelers were notorious actors, he wouldn’t put it past her to try and lower his guards with an act, but he doubted this was the current case solely for the reason that she had nothing to gain from it.  There was little he could offer that RK didn’t already, his speed and agility hardly mattered in the case of her enemies.

Besides, after a quick review of what happened, what he heard, what she said, and a thorough consideration of her habits, it wasn’t difficult to see what happened.  She was finally realizing what RK had been trying to tell her for several timelines.  It was just annoying that _he_ was the one around her when the realization came rather than the mother hen.  He had to question how involved he should get with the situation.  Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time would crumble her mentality further rather than help, and as entertaining as that would be, RK would be furious.  Even if she went home as upset as she was, Metal could already hear the accusations.  Then again, it’s what both of them deserved, dragging him into this nonsense in the first place.  His purpose was to destroy, not coddle.

Sighing dramatically, knowing there was precious little time before the elevator reached the chosen floor and the tiny hedgehog stormed off again, Metal reached over and tapped the girl with the side of his foot.  He only meant to nudge but he watched with a hint of amusement as she toppled over, glaring knives up at him for knocking her over.  “Quit pouting and just do something about it.”

“What, you want me to shock you again?” Itara growled, pushing herself back to her feet after making sure her game didn’t break.

Metal’s eyes narrowed, “Do that and you won’t _make_ it back to your Momma Bear.  I meant about your powers.”  Holding a sizzling, crackling, energized hand up, he snarled, “Even damage can be made use of if you’re smart enough.”  As the elevator dinged, informing them that they’d reached the first floor, Metal put his hand back down as Itara’s own scowl turned blank.  She stared up at him as the doors slid open, Metal pushing up off the wall and walking through, “stop waiting for your ‘dad’ to fix you.  Fix yourself.”

Itara stared after him in confusion, barely scrambling out of the elevator before the doors closed again and took off after the robot.  But he’d already disappeared into the crowd of the lobby, leaving her to question the conversation.  What did he even mean?  What did he expect her to do, exactly?  But more importantly, why was he offering advice in the first place instead of mocking her?  She was so sure, after what happened outside the restaurant, he –and everyone else in her class –was going to mock her relentlessly.  Her brows furrowed as she realized she hadn’t brought Kipper with her and thus had no one to talk it over with.

Sighing, she turned to walk around the first floor, fitting her game into her jacket pocket.  It was busy as usual, with a combination of people she recognized and didn’t.  Those she didn’t spared her no passing glances, as they shouldn’t, but she didn’t miss the sideways glances from those she did.  Of course word would get around already.  Even some of the other parents cast her strange and concerned looks when she passed by, causing her to seek out the hopefully-still-empty event rooms again.

She wanted to go home.

This trip was stupid.

She looked around at the busy ground floor, realizing the event room she’d hidden out in before actually had some kind of event going on, and huffed in annoyance.  She had to find a different spot.  Changing course for the stairway entrance, she passed another group of classmates who were huddled in a circle, whispering amongst themselves and looking suspiciously around every once in a while.  They were being so suspicious Itara couldn’t help but walk a little slower and turn one perked ear their way to see what they were being so hush-hush about.  Not that she cared, of course, they were just being so obvious it was laughable and she would use it to mock them later if they tried to mock her.

“So we’re meeting in your guys’ room, then?”

“Yeah, so you guys make sure to get the snacks.”

“Are you gonna be able to ditch your dad long enough?”

“Yeah, he’s going out with some of the other parents later.”

Itara shook her head, losing interest in the apparent meet up and continued on.  Until one final question had both ears at full attention: “Do any of you have an extra charger?  I barely got my games in my bag before my mom rushed me out, I didn’t have time to grab my charger.”

_It was a gaming meet-up?_

Well.  Not that she cared, still.  She only played with Simon because he so heavily insisted and he lived so close, she didn’t care about playing with others.

“I’ve got an extra charger, _and_ the new Fighting Gods console release.”

“No way, really?  Wait… you brought your _console_?”

“Yeah, I have a carrying case for it and just told my mom it was full of books.  She didn’t even check.”

Itara wasn’t sure when she stopped walking, but it was brought to her sudden attention when a rushing bus boy nearly flattened her with a cart, barely managing to call out an apology when she scrambled out of the way as he flew by.  Glaring towards the much too-tall human, she realized the near crash drew attention, including from the group of classmates, and huffed indignantly, straightening herself back up, and stormed off out of sight.  Though, she didn’t actually go far.  She only went far enough to be out of her classmates sights so they would continue their conversation.  As soon as they did, she edged closer again, hiding behind a nearby chair to listen in.

“Alright, then we’ll meet up in Josh’s room after dinner for game night.  Make sure you aren’t followed by any adults.”

There was a round of agreement and the group dispersed again, leaving Itara to sit and consider it all.  Well, no, she wasn’t considering anything.  She didn’t care.  Why would she even _want_ to go play games with a bunch of mortal children, anyway?  It’s not like she was one of them.  Not to mention, after today, it would likely just open opportunity to mock her for what happened.  Why would she ever want to subject herself to that?  She’d rather play by herself somewhere, where no one could-

“Hey Itara, why are you hiding behind that chair?”

Screeching in shock and toppling over, bringing the fake tree by the chair and its woven basket with her, Itara had to take a moment to regain her composure before glaring up at the mobian boy.  It was one of the boys in her group.  One of the kids who saw her ‘episode’ for himself.  Now he found her, hiding behind a chair in the hotel lobby, by herself, likely looking even more suspicious than the group earlier.  Great.  This trip was only getting worse by the hour.

Sighing, she pulled herself back to her feet, glaring down at the tree and giving it a light kick, “I-I wasn’t hiding… I was thinking.  What do you want?”

“Oh.  Uh, well,” while he looked off to think, Itara studied him, trying to at least remember his name.  She hadn’t cared for the most part, but if he was going to go out of his way to mock her, she would remember it for later.  She _thought_ it was Tobi, but she wasn’t entirely sure.  “Hey, uh, you play video games, right?”

How did he know?  _Why_ did he know?  Was this a trick?  Did he actually know she was eavesdropping?  Narrowing her eyes dangerously, she debated before responding slowly, “maybe.  What’s it to you?”  She was getting a distinct feeling of déjà vu.  Except this time it was a squirrel mobian rather than a human.

“…Why are you always so defensive?”  The boy, whose name was pending as ‘Tobi’, frowned, glaring back as he crossed his arms, “you know, you’d make more friends if you weren’t so mean to everyone all the time.”

“Why would I care about making friends?”

“Because maybe then you could stop spending lunch alone in the stairway all the time.”  Itara recoiled, narrowing her eyes only further.  How many people knew of her hiding spot?!  Why did this random squirrel know so much about her?!  What was he plotting?!  Before she could question him, however, he sighed and dropped his own glare, “Alright, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to scare you like that,” _who was scared?_ “and I wasn’t trying to be mean, I just thought you might want to join my friends and I for some gaming later tonight.  Simon said you played,” _that traitor_ , “so I thought I’d let you know.  I’m not sure where or what time yet, though.  I was on my way to find out now, actually, if you wanted to come.”

Itara could only stare in confusion for a minute, processing this.  He was… inviting her to come play games?  Could he be friends with the group that was talking before?  But did she even want to go?  What if it was a trap?  What if he was only playing nice now to lure her in so they could all tease her at once together?  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been ganged up on.  Last time RK was there to tell her whether she could or not, he could read Simon’s intentions and would have warned her if he was planning anything.  But, this time, she was on her own.  Metal Sonic wasn’t even there.

Apparently she remained silent for too long, however, and Tobi got impatient with waiting.  Before she could come to a proper decision, the squirrel boy sighed dramatically and grabbed her wrist, dragging her out of her thoughts and across the lobby.  “Just come on already.  You can leave later if you don’t wanna stick around but let’s at least go find out what time and where.”  Itara stuttered out a number of half protests but they went entirely unheard by the boy as he led the way through the droves of hotel patrons to find one of his friends, one of the boys from the earlier group, to ask about the apparent gaming night.

The other boy answered easily enough, but looked back at the confused Itara upon realizing she was there.  “Why’d you bring _her_?”  The confusion dropped and a scowl replaced Itara’s previous expression.

“She games, too, so I thought I’d invite her.  She’s in my group for the trip so we’ve been hanging out.”

The confusion returned as both Itara and the other boy looked to Tobi with an eyebrow rose.  Neither of them was aware of this apparent situation.  The other boy shrugged after a moment, however, and continued, “Well, alright, I guess.  Just as long as she isn’t a tattle-tale.  She hangs out with Sceira-.”

“I do not!”

Both boys turned to her now as she glared, pulling her arm back from Tobi and crossing them, “I do not hang out with Sceira.  She just won’t leave me alone.  The only reason I’m even down here is to get away from her.”

The boys exchanged glances, remaining silent, before nodding and turning back to Itara, “Cool.  Then as long as you don’t get followed by an adult, we’re meeting up after dinner in Josh’s room.  He’s got one of the rooms without a chaperone so it’s the best place for a game night.  You gonna be able to get away from your guardian?”

Itara waved the thought away, “Easily.  Not only does he not care, but he took off, anyway.”

“Did he go out with the other parents, too?”

“No, I’m pretty sure he took off on his own.”

“Great!  Then come by after dinner!  Do you have any games?”

Hesitantly, Itara uncrossed her arms to pull her handheld out of her coat pocket to show them, “Yeah.  I only recently got this so I don’t have many games for it, though.”  The boys nodded, told Itara which room number was Josh’s, explained the code word to get in to keep any unwanted spies or adults out, and parted ways again.  Tobi stuck around, though, and Itara somehow ended up following him around to find his other friends.

By the time dinner rolled around, Itara had all but forgotten her earlier concerns and was only excited for, if not still wary about, the game night.  Luckily, dinner was a restaurant nearby, and Metal Sonic had returned just before they left.  She briefly debated telling him about the meet-up, just to let him know she wouldn’t be in the room, but decided against it.  Adults weren’t supposed to know, after all, and though _she_ was technically much, much older than any of the others, Metal was the ‘adult’ of the group so she decided he couldn’t know.  Instead, she rushed through her dinner as much as possible and back to the hotel to get ready.  She wanted to change into something more comfortable, since it was apparently supposed to go late and her school uniform skirt wasn’t late-night gaming attire.

As she headed back out of the room, however, both Metal and Sceira stopped her to question where she was going.  She’d forgotten about Sceira.  Metal would be easy enough to get past, he didn’t care, but Sceira was _specifically_ named amongst those who couldn’t know, along with Camilla.  She stopped for a moment, but eventually decided on the excuse of walking dinner off and left.  She met back up with Tobi along the way, mostly by chance, and the two of them continued on to Josh’s room.

When they arrived, the whole group Itara had seen earlier in the evening were there, three of them getting the console hooked up to the TV and the other two sitting on the bed playing their handhelds, as well as a couple others getting a bag of snacks set up on the small table in the room.  They greeted Tobi happily enough, but all but the three busy with the console stopped to stare when they saw Itara, causing her to become unsure of her decision to join them.

“Who invited that weirdo?”

“I did,” Tobi glared, grabbing Itara’s wrist again and pulling her further into the room.

“Isn’t she friends with Sceira, though?  What if she tattles?”

“Nah, she doesn’t like Sceira, either.  Besides, she games, too, she’s even good at Fighting Gods!”  Itara turned red in the face at the final part, suddenly unsure about her earlier bragging in relation to the arcade game.  She only played it that once, and technically she lost.  Lost to an advanced AI designed to study and learn fighting styles and match them, but still.

“She’s gonna need to be better than ‘good’ to beat me,” Josh, a human kid from one of the other groups, grinned from his place near the TV.

While Tobi flopped over on the bed with the two there, pulling out his own handheld to join whatever they were doing, Itara looked around the room to avoid looking at any one person.  Somehow, she’d forgotten how little she got along with her classmates.  She never cared before, but now that she was in a much smaller room alone with a group of them, it felt awkward.  Before long, though, her eyes were drawn to the small snack table and noticed a pile of chocolate chip cookies, wondering if they were up for grabs.

“There!  I think it’s finally set up!”

All eyes turned to the TV as the screen flicked on, showing the menu of the system, followed by a call of excitement from around the room.  Josh grabbed a game case and popped the disk in, grabbing the controllers and grinning back at Itara again, holding one out to her.  “Let’s see how good you really are, huh?”

Itara hesitated again, but once the arcade-turned-console game started up and the familiar theme played, she met his grin.  Walking over and sitting on the floor beside him, she grabbed the other controller and responded, “Bring it.  I beat Sparky at this game.”  She didn’t.  But they didn’t need to know that.

“Wait, Sparky your guardian?” Tobi questioned from the bed.

“Yeah, the three of us went to an arcade once and I played Sparky in this game and kicked his butt.  Just don’t ask him, he’ll deny it.  He doesn’t like admitting he lost.”

“Then maybe I’ll finally have a real challenge for once,” Josh laughed, “cuz no one can beat me!”

“I look forward to breaking your streak,” Itara grinned, choosing the obvious Solaris-themed God in the game.  Josh chose his character and the match began.  Of course, all uncertainty Itara held about the fight beforehand was gone as soon as she easily annihilated him the first round.  As it turned out, Sparky wasn’t the only one skilled at reading people and, despite her lack of actual experience with the game, her ability to predict his moves were much more beneficial than she had expected.  Then again, she was still fighting a third grader.

The match ended much sooner than Josh had expected, going 0-2 against the suddenly cocky Itara, accusing her of cheating for a brief moment before calming down again and getting a laugh from the hedgehog.  Of course, their battle caught the attention of the others and the challengers lined up to try and beat her, though she refused to do another match until there was a cookie in her hand.  Luckily, Tobi was quick to oblige and grabbed a cookie off the plate as payment for challenging her next, which she happily accepted.

Itara defeated the rest of the kids easily enough, picking up more about the actual game mechanics along the way, and had finally figured out how to do specials after three matches.  Once that was done, she gave up her spot at the console and pulled her handheld out, wanting to see if she could add more friends for the game she played with Simon.  As it turned out, almost everyone there at least had the game, though they hadn’t all brought it with them.  She could at least add them and play again later, though.

Before she realized it, she had become completely absorbed in the game night and the ever-present anxiety about everything being a trap found itself a nice, cozy home in the back of her mind for once.  As she and the others sat around playing mini-games in a party-board-style game on their handhelds, having moved the box of cookies between them on the hotel bed instead of halfway across the room on the table, she managed to forget about the monster attacks and timelines and impending revival of the Ancient Gods.  Though the moment was fleeting, it was nice while it lasted.

They spent the next several hours hopping between games and telling stories, munching on snacks and running around the room.  She’d managed to push her worries aside for a short while, but over the course of the night the whispers and worries that none of this was right and that she was putting her guard down too low crept back and put Itara back on edge.  She did her best to shake them from her head, but the longer the night went on, the louder those concerns grew.  Even though it was obvious that nothing bad was happening, the others even seemed to enjoy her presence to a degree, she couldn’t completely ignore the impending doom stabbing at the back of her head.

It wasn’t until nearly midnight that their fun finally ended when one of the parents from another room came looking for their missing kid.  They told the others to go to bed and sent them on their way before going back to their own room, stopping any potential continuation of the night.  While most of them whined about it, Itara didn’t complain as much.  She was having fun, for once, but she also wanted to get back to her room so she could text RK.  She hadn’t done that yet and wanted to before she passed out.

She and Tobi walked back together most of the way, since their rooms were on the same floor, but parted ways at his room, leaving Itara to continue on to hers alone.  She had a small smile on her face when she returned, getting a strange look from Metal when he let her in, but said nothing as she continued to her suitcase.  Pulling her phone out and turning it on, she sat down on the edge of the open bed while Metal returned to his chair to continue charging.

“You look satisfied.”

“What… no, I mean,” Itara frowned, giving it a moment of thought before texting RK and continuing, “there were chocolate chip cookies, that’s all.  And I beat everyone at Fighting Gods.”

“Fighting Gods?  …That fighting game you challenged me to at the arcade?  That I beat you with one arm?”

Itara’s face flushed up as she glared over at him, but returned her eyes to the screen to continue her text, “Maybe.  Yes.  But I know more now and I bet I could beat you this time.”

“You think so, huh?”

“I _know_ so.”

Metal smirked, leaning back in the chair, “We’ll just have to see about that.”  Though after a silent moment of thought, he glared over again, “Wait, you were off playing games?”  He knew she hadn’t actually left for a walk, it was an easy enough lie to catch, but he didn’t know what she’d actually disappeared to do.

“ _Maybe_.”

Narrowing his eyes, he scoffed but remained silent.  Well.  It’s not like she was the only one.  He ran back to that arcade earlier, just as he planned, and played all the games he hadn’t been able to during the day.  So he supposed that was fine.


	22. School Trip Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara has a particularly bad nightmare that leaves a heavy feeling around the rest of the day, but at least they're finally getting to the university... and the manuscripts.

“C’mon, Itara, hurry up and get connected!”

“Alright, alright, I’m working on it, gimme a minute.  …There!”

Itara sat in the middle of the large, empty room with a small group of classmates.  They were all sitting on the floor with their handhelds, getting connected in a co-op game, only having a short period of time before they had to go finish their homework.  The room was empty with no noticeable doors or windows and only one overhead light where they sat, though none of the children paid it any mind.

They had finally gotten their games connected and a mission decided on when another classmate walked up, opening a door that hadn’t previously been there, and calling out to the group.  “Hey guys, there’s a banquet table set up for the festival with free snacks for kids!  Let’s go get some!”

There was hardly a moment’s consideration amongst the group as they abandoned their games, stuffing the handhelds in various pockets and backpacks, and took off running out of the room.  All but one.

Itara moved to get up and follow the others, just as eager for free snacks as the rest of them, but when she tried to take that first step to follow, her feet caught and sent her tumbling forward.  A yelp of confusion filled the empty room, the door that had been opened disappearing once more, as she tried to get back up.  Glaring back at her feet when they refused to move correctly, panic replaced her frustration as she realized they were bound together.  As were her wrists.

Struggling and shifting to try and free herself, she called out for her friends, hoping they hadn’t gone far and could help, but her cry only echoed off the barren walls around her.  Crying out again, her voice carried further into the open air of the expansive, bright green field, swept up by a powerful, chilling wind.  She thought she recognized the area, but couldn’t be concerned with it as she was still struggling with the ropes around her limbs.  But the more she pulled at them, the tighter they got, and the more of her legs and arms they covered.

Panicked and frightened, she called out again, to anyone who might be near, but got nothing beyond the shifting grass as a response.  Where were her friends?  Where was RK?  Kipper?  Sparky?  Why was she in a field?  Why couldn’t she get these ropes off?!  But the only answer she got was a sudden beam of light, a tightness in her chest, and the sky turning a deep, angry red. 

 

“RK!”

Itara shot up out of the bed, gasping for breath and clutching her chest, staring out into the dimly lit room, wide eyed and terror-stricken.  Her chest hurt and she could feel both dry and new tears clinging to her fur as her spines shifted up with the crystals that now covered them.  She could vaguely hear a distant voice, but didn’t understand what it was saying and it wasn’t until the crystals crept out over her fingers and jutted into her skin that she blinked again, trying to calm herself.

She could see the light red glow of Kipper’s gem at the edges of her peripheral and grabbed for him, wrapping him tightly in her arms and getting a small grunt from the otherwise silent doll.  “ _Hey… watch the claws,_ ” the doll hissed quietly, uncertain if their trip-long roommate had woken, as well.

Slowing her breath, Itara closed her eyes briefly, loosening her grip on Kipper.  When she opened them again, she saw another red glow in front of her, this time coming from much higher up and coming in a pair.  She recognized Metal Sonic before long and let out a slow breath, attempting to sink back into the bed but felt the immediate stab of her crystallized spines and sat back up straight, sighing.  Looking up at the staring robot again, she frowned, “wh-what…?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Metal responded flatly, “What was all that?”

“I-It was… it was j-just a… nightmare,” she stammered, looking down again, pulling her legs up to her chest.  She remembered that field now.  Closing her eyes again, she pulled her legs in tighter and curled up in as much of a ball as she could, whimpering quietly.

“Right… nightmares.  I forgot that was a thing organics did.”  It sounded as if there was more he intended to add but after a short silence, moved away, instead.  Before Itara could question him about it, however, she heard the shuffling of their inconvenient roommate and figured Metal’s next comment probably shouldn’t be heard by others.

“Itara, are you alright?”

She gave no response, however, and only curled further in on herself.  She didn’t need _Sciera’s_ pity, of all things.  Though the scorpion girl seemed less keen on accepting that and moved up to the other bed, reaching cautiously out to the other, panicked girl.  “It’s alright, we all get nightmares once in a while.  If you need to talk about it-”

“I d-don’t!” Itara snapped.  Or rather, she tried.  It came out broken and shaking, much to her dismay.  It’s not like Sceira would understand, anyway.  It wasn’t just a nightmare.  They never were.

Silence filled the room as the three debated how best to deal with the situation and it was Metal who finally broke it.  Or rather, he was the first to pull Itara out of her curled ball when he tapped her side with her phone.  It took her a minute to respond to the light stabbing, but when she did, she looked up at him strangely.

“You woke up calling for RK, perhaps it’s best you give him a call,” he explained as flatly as ever, moving back to the chair he’d been resting in once she took her phone.  “And let him know I intend to pay him back fully for subjecting me to this trip, while you’re at it.  Unlike _you_ , I don’t have a direct communication line to him at this distance.”

Itara watched him curiously, but looked back to her phone after a moment, sighing heavily.  Maybe Sparky was right, for once.  But she couldn’t actually tell him anything with Sceira around.  Perhaps she would text him, instead.  Waiting for the phone to turn on, she looked out towards the window, noting that it was nearing sunrise and that they needed to be up and getting ready soon and sighed further.  She wasn’t ready to be up yet.  She was so tired.  Glancing to Sceira again, seeing as she was still _so close to her_ , she studied the look of concern on the scorpion’s face.  It was strange to see, for sure, but Itara was also glad for the other mobian’s inability to see.  Between the crystals and the tears she could _still feel_ , Itara would prefer no one see her at the moment.

“Are you going to stay there the rest of the night?” She tried to sound as annoyed as possible, but even she could pick out the hints of genuine curiosity in her voice.

“If you need me to,” Sceira responded, an answer Itara wasn’t expecting.

“ _Why_?”

“Well… you… sound like you need it.”  What was that supposed to mean?  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you.  I don’t know what’s wrong with you _most_ of the time.  You keep to yourself so much and cause a lot of trouble at school so I don’t usually like being around you much.  But, maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge.   It’s pretty obvious you’re going through a lot right now and I think you just need help more than anything.  I still wish you wouldn’t cause so much trouble all the time, but,” she paused, giving it a moment of thought before offering a smile, “I want to let you know it’ll be okay.”

Itara was speechless.

She had no idea how to respond and it showed on her face, though only Metal could see it from across the room.  She shifted uncomfortably in the bed, looking away from Sceira, debating how to answer, going back and forth between comforted and uncertain and angry and couldn’t decide how she actually felt.  She didn’t want Sceira’s pity, she didn’t want anyone’s pity.  But at the same time, even the idea that everything would, in fact, be okay made her uncomfortable.  Especially since she knew for a fact that it wouldn’t.  She knew Sceira didn’t know what was going on, what went on before, no one did.  How could she possibly suggest everything could be okay when she had no idea whether or not it was true?  They knew _nothing_.

Taking another deep breath, Itara calmed herself again, this time moving to get up off the bed.  “I’ll… be out in the hall.”  She didn’t look back at them as she continued out the door, keeping both Kipper and her phone wrapped tightly in her hands, and walked all the way down the hall to the staircase to sit and think.  As soon as she was sure no one was in the stairwell, however, she let Kipper float up next to her and called RK, rather than texting him.  She wanted to actually talk to him.  Luckily, since she’d already sent him a couple texts, he responded to the call right away, having already woken up from sleep mode.

“Are you alright?”

Itara would never admit how relieved she was to hear his voice.  “I… I had another nightmare,” she explained after several seconds of silence.

Now it was RK’s turn to remain silent for a moment before asking, “The same as usual?”

“Not… exactly,” she frowned, keeping an ear out for movement around the stairwell.  “It… it started in this empty room where I was… p-playing games with some of my classmates but… then I was… I couldn’t move and then I was _in that field again_ … and there was this light and then the sky turned red and… and…”  She trailed off, curling up again as Kipper eyed her curiously.

“…I see.  That is different from usual.  Though it does still boil down to the same concept.”  There was silence again before he continued, “Are you going to be okay to finish the trip?  I can… tell Metal to bring you back early if you aren’t.”

“No… no, it’s fine.  I’m fine.”  She briefly debated whether to tell him about the incident yesterday or not but ultimately decided against it.  She wanted to change the subject.  “Has that other robot shown up again at all since we left?”

“No.  I haven’t seen him again since our fight.  The monster attacks have increased, but he stopped showing up to fight them.  I can’t help but wonder if that means Robotnik’s planning something.  I heard about the earthquake there, are you and Metal alright?  Were you near it?”

Itara turned red at the memory, looking off to the side and getting a wide grin from Kipper for the motion.  “Uh… A-About that…”  She explained the situation with Chip to him, noting Metal’s theories on it, as well as the fact that they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the other half of Gaia since.  RK listened in silence throughout the explanation, only making a small grunting noise when Kipper added his own commentary on the situation.

“Alright.  And you’re sure you don’t want to come home early?”

“No.  We should be going to the university today.  I can’t leave yet.”

“Itara.”

“RK, I need answers.”

There was something akin to a rather dramatic sigh from the other line, but RK once again demanded she stay away from the manuscripts and anything else Ancient God related, telling her to remind Metal to keep her away from them.  None of which Itara intended to do.  When they finally hung up, RK sounded as exasperated as ever and Itara was feeling much better than when she left.  There was also considerably more sun shining down the previously rather dreary hallway when she left the stairwell again to return to the hotel room.

The rest of the morning went by silently, or what Itara thought was silently.  She was so lost in thought, if anyone had been talking to her, it never registered.  She was focused on her dream, on the past, on the future, on the trip to the university, whether or not getting the manuscripts would even help her, and why everything felt so heavy today.  She assumed it was because of yesterday’s events and her dreams, though.  She always felt heavy after those particular nightmares, so she was used to it to a degree, but she still didn’t like it much.

It was a painfully familiar dread that loomed over her, though.

Once Sceira was ready to go, and caught Itara’s attention long enough to ask if she was ready to leave, Itara waved her off.  She would catch up.  There was something she needed to do before they left the hotel today.  She waited for the sound of the lock clicking closed before turning back to her backpack, which she was filling with the usual daily essentials, but handed Kipper her turned off phone before zipping it up this time.  She’d been leaving it in the room through most of the trip, but today she would bring it because of the trip to the university.  On the off chance that she couldn’t take the manuscripts, themselves, she could at least get pictures of the pages.

With that taken care of, and ignoring the looks from both her haunted doll nestled into her backpack and the suspicious robot across the room, she finished getting ready and headed for the door.  “Just as a reminder, Metal,” she stated, looking over her shoulder towards him, “I _will_ get those manuscripts today.  I don’t care how.”

Metal Sonic scoffed, following her out the door as she opened it, “You can try.”

Itara shot him a scowl, but said nothing else and continued down the hall to the elevator.  She would try, and she would succeed.  This awful trip wasn’t going to be for nothing after everything she’s dealt with while on it.  The rest of their morning was equally silent, though a couple classmates from the night before gave Itara a quick wave when they saw her.  The only one who approached her, however, was Tobi, who decided to sit with her during breakfast.

“Hey, thanks for coming with me last night,” the squirrel boy grinned as he poked at the fruits on his breakfast tray.  Itara only hummed in response.  She wasn’t feeling talkative today.  He, however, took her silence as an apparent request to continue talking.  “So, we’re going to the university today, right?  The one you requested in class?”

“Yes.  Finally.”

“How come you wanted to go there, though?  I mean, we’re only in third grade… you’re already thinking about colleges?”

Itara mused for a moment, watching the uncertain look on the other mobian’s face.  He was debating whether he was supposed to be thinking about college or not, as well.  She wanted to laugh.  Instead, she shook her head, “Not exactly.  There’s just something there I want to see.”

“Oh, really?”  The look of relief on his face nearly got a chuckle out of her.  “What is it?”

“Just something in the on-site museum.  It doesn’t matter.”  At least, not to any of them.  It only mattered to her.

An awkward silence drifted between them as Tobi finally turned his focus to his food and dredged his way through the considerably healthy meal, something Itara could certainly relate to for once.  She somewhat regretted already eating all her cookies now.  She wanted one.  But she had been in such a bad mood yesterday that she needed something to improve it.  Hopefully nothing more happened that required immediate cookie-fix.

After breakfast and a reconvening of the groups, they all set off once more, destined for the university Itara had been pining for.  It seemed they would be spending only half the day touring it, however, and the other half would be spent at a nearby amusement park.  Which meant Itara was on a time-limit.  She couldn’t waste any getting to the museum.  It was likely they would go through it during the tour, but she doubted she’d be able to grab anything with the entirety of her class roaming the area.  No, she’d need to slip away, preferably right away, to find the museum and wait for an opportune moment.  It would likely be a populated place, she would need to time everything perfectly to not get caught.

She spent the ride over to the university devising several possible plans and studying the layout of the university she’d printed before they left for the trip.  She knew exactly where the museum was, the shortest routes to it from every major pathway, and the nearest exits to every room she may need to escape from, should plans go awry.  Of course, she could no longer _check_ what would happen and which path she would most likely need, but that’s why she had a number of backup plans.

Nodding as the bus slowed to a stop, she stuffed the map back in her bag and pulled it on, looking up at Metal in time to see the bemused grin just before it left his face.  She narrowed her eyes dangerously to warn him not to get in her way today, but knew it was a fruitless venture.  She would just need to escape him, as well.  A much larger challenge than escaping the sight of her classmates, but she had a plan for that, as well.  She couldn’t have Kipper short him from behind like last time, it was too risky, so instead she intended to use the others to her advantage.  She never thought being forced to withstand a bus full of children could ever be beneficial to her but, as it turned out, she learned something new every day still.

Continuing her silence as they filed off the bus and collected in their groups again, hearing yet another sermon about protocol from their head teacher, she took in the sights of the university as they waited for whatever tour guide would be coming.  The college was quite the massive ordeal, seeing it in person.  In addition to the main building in the center, several large buildings spotted the edges of the campus, boxing in a wide expanse of grass and cement that created the courtyard.  A tall, curiously shaped sculpture stood in the middle of it all in the center of a round fountain, which sat several groups of students either chatting, relaxing, or focusing on whatever work they had for their classes.  The campus was busy and packed, with students milling about every which way and the occasional teacher making their way to or from their respective classrooms.

Amongst them, a group of four approached from the main building to meet up with the waiting third graders and their chaperones.  One of them broke off to speak with their head teacher, before introducing himself as the Dean of the college and welcoming them to the campus.  He talked for a few minutes about the college and its history and whatever else the children obviously weren’t paying attention to before explaining that the other three were students of the school and would be their tour guides.  They got organized once more and finally headed into the school to begin the tour.

Once they finally set off, and Itara knew what she was working with in regards to classmates and the tour guide, as well as which direction they were heading in first, she worked through which of her plans would be the most efficient to get where she needed as quickly as possible.  Luckily, for once, the combined groups would work in her favor.  The more curious children, the better.

As per usual, she and Metal Sonic remained towards the back of the group, walking along silently only briefly glancing around at the sights as the tour guide explained the different sections of the buildings.  They would be exploring the dormitories first, apparently.  Which meant Itara would need to move _fast_ once she broke away from them to reach the main building, where the museum was located, to reach it before Metal caught up to her again.  She knew her plan would only stall him a few minutes, at best, but that was all she could do.  It was unfortunate.  She wasn’t a great runner and hiding wasn’t an option, knowing he could read energy signatures.  If it were only heat signatures she could lose him in a large group of people, but she doubted anyone at the college would have an energy signature anywhere near hers.  The most she could do to confuse his sensors would be to let Kipper loose, which she would consider if necessary.

This was the one time she would have preferred grouping up with Susan or Veronica again, knowing they could easily distract Metal with the right push.  But, unfortunately, they were with a different group this time.  Perhaps she could still use them, however.  Who were they with this time?  Another mobian this time.  Maybe she would just stick to her original plan.  Putting too much attention on Metal Sonic with another mobian was also risky.  They’d been lucky so far, she shouldn’t push it.

However, before she could come to any further decision about her escape she found herself suddenly swept off her feet, a squeak of confusion ringing through the dormitory hallway, as Metal placed her up on his shoulders and the group of third graders looked back to see what was going on.  Itara turned red in the face, stammering through half-questions, while Metal only waved the others on, claiming she was too slow and lagging behind.  The response garnered giggles from her classmates, but they promptly turned back around and walked forward.  Itara, however, only silently screeched in frustration.  How was she supposed to escape from up here?!

Scowling, she leaned forward to eye the robot angrily, hissing quietly, “ _Why_?!”

Metal only grinned over at her, “So I can keep track of you.  Can’t have you trying to sneak off, after all.  You can’t very well try and short me here, and I’m the biggest obstacle between you and those manuscripts so no doubt you’ve put plans in place to get past me.  A distraction is the most logical conclusion, as brief as it may be, it could buy you enough time to put distance between us.  Maybe use the doll, maybe use your classmates.  But no distraction is large enough for me to lose you when you’re on my shoulders.”

Itara stumbled through a number of frustrated noises before finally huffing angrily and crossing her arms, glaring off to the side and mumbling incoherently.  She underestimated his ability to predict her.  She should have known better.  Well, this wouldn’t stop her.  It only meant she needed a new plan, a reason to put her down, given she could never move fast enough to fall off his shoulders and run for it, he would likely catch her long before she even reached the ground.

“I thought you _wouldn’t_ be carrying me around like RK does?” she growled, “You’ve done an awful lot of it lately.”

“Yes, well, I’m now convinced RK only does so because you’re so slow and troublesome.  Especially to me.”

“Well excuse me for not being faster than the speed of sound.  I’m a _different_ breed of hedgehog.”  She remained silent for a moment, feeling the scowl from the robot without him having to face her.  An amused smirk spread across her face as a thought occurred to her and she shifted to get more comfortable, resting her crossed arms on his head, taking on a more relaxed smile as she yawned, “AH, yup.  Nice and comfy.  I’m so glad I don’t have to walk through this tour.  It’s so nice having someone to carry you around everywhere.  You’re a great _chauffeur_ , Sparky!”

She heard the growl and noticed the look of amusement and concern on the classmates that glanced back, but she only got more comfortable.  At any other point, this would likely get her tossed clean across a field, but that would only _mostly_ benefit her in this case, and he knew it.  Reaching down, she poked his bangs, swishing them back and forth, and questioning, “How long have your quills been styled like this, Sparky?  I don’t think I’ve ever asked before.  Did you style them, yourself, or did _someone else_?”  She’d been meaning to get back at him for a while now.  It was finally a prime opportunity.

Though, she had to cease her playing with his bangs after a short moment as he reached up and grabbed her wrist, turning just enough to scowl dangerously at her.  “Touch those again and I’ll break your tiny wrist, Left-Foot.”  As flat as his tone was, there was a deadly viciousness in it that sent a chill down even Itara’s spine, though she kept it from reaching her face as she stared him down.  Even when he squeezed her wrist as an extra measure of warning, not enough to break it, but enough to get the point across, she kept her face straight.

“Ow.”  Once he released her wrist again, she pulled it back and gave it a small rub before leaning on his head again, “That’s mean, Sparky.  It was just a question.”  Though once he went back to ignoring her, the smirk returned to her face, “You know I’m the one who styled RK’s fur the way it is.  You should let me style yours, too.  I’d say I’m pretty great at it.”

“Not a chance in Hell.  Now shush, you’re missing all this important information you wanted to know about the university.”  Though the deadly tone never left Metal’s voice, Itara only grinned and got comfortable again.  She would remain quiet.  Not because he told her to, but because she needed to focus on devising a new plan.  She was still working on a time limit and she wasn’t about to let it go to waste because of Metal.  Though she had to admit, she did at least like the view from so high up.  RK was a few inches taller than Metal, but they both towered over other mobians, easily.


	23. It Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disaster strikes...

Itara’s ear flicked again, as it had been for the past half hour of the tour.  She was still up on Metal Sonic’s shoulders, attempting to escape, but between the twitch and the heavy dread returning so suddenly and violently she was finding it hard to focus on escape plans.  At first she attempted to rationalize it away as a combination of her dreams and the worry that she may not be able to get to the manuscripts, but it was quickly feeling like _much_ more.  Frowning, she reached up to flick the offending ear, though cringed at her own assault and returned to pouting.

“ _Sparky_.”  He ignored her, prompting her to hiss sharply, “ _Sparky_.”  Finally she got a slight shift from the robot that was likely drowning the world out.  Once she was sure she had his attention, however, she continued in a hushed tone, “Something’s wrong.”

“Something has been _wrong_ since RK plotted against me to force me on this trip,” the unamused bot growled.

“No, I mean something is… actually wrong.  I… I don’t know what… but…,” she trailed off, looking around.  They were at least back outside, crossing from one building to the next, headed from some classrooms to the main building, but Itara felt no relief.  It meant she was finally closer to the museum, but she couldn’t shake the dread and neither could she pinpoint the problem.

“If this is your attempt at a ruse,” Metal sighed, but was quickly cut off.

“As if I’d be so obvious.  No, something is happening… I just don’t know what.”

The robot looked to the trail of children before coming to a stop, scanning the immediate area.  It was difficult to pinpoint anything specific in such a crowded area, not that he knew what he was looking for to begin with, but figured he would pick up on a major energy signature if there was one to find.  After an initial scan, however, nothing came up and he peered back at the hedgehog child with a sharp gaze.  “My scanners are picking nothing up, what are you scheming?”

“Look, Metal, it’s….”  She stopped herself, however, and sighed instead.  Leaning heavily against him, she motioned towards the group that had yet to notice their stop.  “Forget it.  Just go back to the group.”  To be fair, not even she knew what was wrong.  Maybe it was just her dreams getting to her.  It was hard to tell anymore.  Not even she was oblivious to her loosening grip on reality lately and was finding it increasingly difficult to trust her own judgement.  She was growing paranoid.

Metal eyed her suspiciously for a moment longer before continuing on to catch back up with the group, though three of his much longer strides put them right back with the group of tiny, shuffling legs easily.  Itara remained silent for several minutes afterwards, though whether it was from her apparent concern or because she was still plotting to escape, Metal didn’t know.  She’d tried several tactics between the dormitories and the classrooms, none of which being overly successful, so her silence and stillness now was suspicious to him.

As they entered the main hall of the largest building, however, the tiny hedgehog let out a long, quiet sigh of relief, prompting another glance from the bot.  To his surprise, he felt her lean further against him and tightened his grip ever so slightly on her ankles.  The children and guide in front of them continued on, utterly unaware of the disquiet behind them.

Until the mobian children and chaperones stopped rather suddenly, ears perked, as they looked in several directions.  Their human classmates and tour guide stopped with them, turning curious glances on their animal companions before exchanging looks with one another.  The movement hardly went unnoticed by the two at the back, either, as Itara’s ears perked and Metal Sonic’s radars alerted him to an enormous amount of building energy, both organic and robotic in nature.

“Is something wrong?” the tour guide questioned, unsure of the mobian reactions.

“Do you guys not hear that?” one of the mobian children asked, turning to a human friend.

“Hear what?”

“I suggest you vacate this area immediately,” Metal stated flatly, showing little genuine concern for those around him and barely keeping the grin off his face as he pulled Itara up and off his shoulders.

“Sparky,” Itara warned, having a decent idea of what might be coming, at least one source.

“That includes you,” Metal added, eyeing her.

“What are you picking up, exactly?”

“Anomalies… and a substantial electric power with _familiar_ readings.”

Itara’s brows furrowed as she considered what he meant while her classmates grouped up and talked in hushed tones with each other.  Once the realization hit, however, her eyes widened as she moved closer to him again, “Do _not_.”

“You plan to stop me?”  The towering, red-eyed robot was already loosening up to fight the encroaching enemies with little reserve.

“Are you insane?  You can’t engage with _badniks_ , Sparky.”

“Badniks?”

Itara glared over her shoulder at the approaching scorpion, “not now, Sceira.”  Turning back to Metal again, she hissed a final warning, “Do you want to get caught?”

“That implies anyone can catch me.  _No one_ is faster than me.”

“What are you two planning, exactly?  You don’t intend to actually fight whatever’s coming, do you?” Sceira questioned, shocked.  “If a _Robotnik_ robot is near we need to vacate _immediately_ , as you said.”

With the mention of Robotnik an all-out panic struck the group of school children, a cacophony of distressed questioning erupting and causing a chain-effect throughout the university halls as it reached student and faculty ears.  The panicked tour guide, in an attempt to keep them under control, suggested going to find the rest of their class and taking the blue hedgehog’s suggestion to leave.  Metal and Itara watched the chaos ensue for all of a second before returning to their own argument, though were interrupted again by Sceira grabbing Itara to drag her over to the retreating group of children.

“We need to leave, come on.”

“Sceira, release me this instant.  You may flee if you so please but I have business here.”  She wrestled her way out of the scorpion’s grasp and back over to Sparky, only for the commotion to finally reach the university campus.  An echo of snarls and roars erupted first, followed by terrified screams from the students that had been outside.  Sceira stared off in horror, likely listening to the chaos outside, while Itara sighed and glared up at Metal.  “You can fight the monsters, but stay out of sight of the robots.  I mean it.  Don’t forget the last time you ignored my warning about this.”

Metal had initially only rolled his eyes at her tiny demands, but finally stopped to consider her warnings with the final one.  The last time.  One of the many filled-in memories from the reset timeline, the source of a majority of his upgrades and, ultimately, his recapture by Robotnik.  According to the tiny child, she had warned him of his imminent failure to defeat Sonic before the fight, and was proven right after he ignored her.  But that was all also filled-in by the time traveler, not even RK could verify that memory, as he’d been inactive at the time.

But he had no more time to debate it, either way, as the monsters crashed their way through the university walls.  Sceira screamed at the noise and attempted to run, though was caught up in the rubble and nearly crushed if Metal hadn’t been much faster than the destroyed wall and moved both mobian children out of the way of the attack.  Itara only cursed but Sceira curled up in fear.

“Get out of my way,” Metal growled back to the children, glaring at Itara specifically, “neither you _nor he_ control me.  I fight who I please.”  And with no more words, the robot turned back to the towering, deep purple monster rampaging through the university halls, wasting no time planting a boosted foot in the side of the creature’s head.  If Itara didn’t know any better, she would have thought she actually saw a _smug grin_ on the blue bot’s face.  But he was right, there was nothing she could do to stop him.  On the one hand it was infuriating that he was risking being seen and recognized when they could easily just escape.  On the other hand, however, his insistence to fight meant he now also had no control over her and the panic from the monsters guaranteed an empty museum.  She could reach the manuscripts.

“Kipper.”  It took little time for the doll to fade his way out of the backpack and float next to her, scanning the area before his eyes fell on the cowering scorpion.  Itara followed his sight and debated leaving her there.  An opportunity to get the manuscripts _and_ get rid of Sceira in the same day?  What luck.

However, as she turned towards the now empty hallway, she stopped, frowning.  That infuriating pseudo-scorpion.  What did _she_ care if she got crushed by a collapsing wall?  Sceira had been nothing but a thorn in her side since she met her.  She should leave her there to die.  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d left someone to die.  She’d done it numerous times, in numerous timelines.  What did one classmate matter to her now?  But even as she mulled this over, even as she told herself she didn’t care, she found herself turning back and pulling the infuriating girl to her feet.

“Kipper, find the museum and locate the manuscripts.  I’ll meet you there,” she growled.

The doll stared at her, a look of disgust touching his blank features for all of a split second before returning to normal.  “Don’t die on the way.  Though I bet your soul would be _quite_ the power source, if you do.”

“I’m sure it would, shame you’ll never have it,” Itara noted flatly, shooing the doll towards the museum while she dragged Sceira to the nearest exit, “I still hate you.”  Sceira, however, remained unresponsive, much to Itara’s amusement.  The less the scorpion talked, the less likely Itara was to come to her senses about leaving her to die.

They exited the broken wall at the front and Itara scanned the area for both monsters, robots, and _one robot in particular_ , before moving further out.  In addition to Gaia’s Nightmares, there were once again Iblis Biters, as well as the bird-forms of both monsters diving in from above.  There was one larger golem smashing through the buildings and that was where Itara spotted Metal Sonic again.  The university grounds became a monstrous hunting ground and, even more concerning, was the harsh buzz of electrified robots not far in the distance.  Robotnik wasn’t far.

But why?

Why now?  Why today?  Why _here_?  There were attacks happening everywhere, why was the university a sudden hotspot?  Unless…

Itara hissed at the realization, hurrying Sceira along, though having to skirt around much of the square to avoid the monsters, in addition to her own slowness.  She wasn’t even sure where to head the scorpion off to, either.  Everyone scrambled during the attack and the bus they’d arrived in laid, halved, in the center of what used to be the fountain.  Maybe she should have kept Kipper with her to help her search.  But getting those books was more important.  But if Robotnik was coming for them, too, would Kipper be able to handle it on his own?

Luckily, she finally caught sight of a familiar face in the running form of one of her teachers and called out to them, seeming to get Sceira’s attention for the first time in several minutes.

“Itara?!”  There was as much confusion and shock as there was panic in the other girl’s voice.

“Sh-shut up.”  She called out to the teacher again, grabbing their attention over the chaos and waved wildly to call them over.  Once they were, however, Itara moved away from Sceira immediately and took off in the opposite direction.  If she stuck around, the teacher would insist she stay with them, and even if she had to _crawl_ her way back to the museum halls, she would.  She vaguely heard both Sceira and her teacher’s calls after her as she stumbled back towards the university square, but ignored them and continued on.  She was so close.  She just had to get there before Robotnik.  She couldn’t let him get them, not after everything she went through.  Sceira was enough of a distraction, she couldn’t afford more.

However, in her attempt to vault over a fallen bit of rubble, she drastically overestimated her ability to clear it and tripped instead, only managing to avoid going face-first into cement by curling up and rolling halfway across the clearing.  Her backpack suffered the worst of the damage, at least, tearing open and spilling everything, creating a trail to her final stopping point, where she had to sit and stop her head from spinning for a minute.  As she was shaking her head clear, though, the screech of a phoenix echoed above her, hardly giving her a second to dive out of the way before it slammed beak-first into the pavement where she once sat.

She scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible, only glancing back at the bird, which was attempting to right itself again, before taking off for the university building again.  Or at least, that was her plan.  Her shaking legs, however, had an entirely different plan as they sent her stumbling back to the pavement, raising a string of curses from the small hedgehog.  She didn’t have time for this!  Even as she attempted to pull herself back up, or even crawl away, the heavy thud of a line of warbots shook the ground, opening fire on the various monsters rampaging on the path.

Itara curled up tightly, covering her ears and crying out in utter terror, wishing she hadn’t sent Kipper off, wishing Metal had stayed with her, wishing RK was with her, _anything_.  She could feel her crystals spiking again but didn’t have the energy to care, she was too scared of _dying_ to worry about letting people see her crystals.  No one remembered that timeline, anyway, it didn’t matter.  She just wanted out of there!  She should have gone with Kipper to the museum.  She should have left Sceira where she was.  Why did she bother?!

But as her panic hit peak, she realized the gunfire had stopped and there was a voice near her.  She could hear sparking robots behind her and screeching monsters above her, causing the voice to be nothing but garbled nonsense, but just the sound of a voice was a source of comfort for her at the moment as she reached up to grab onto whoever it was.

“Whoa!  It’s okay, no need for tears!  I’m here now!”

It took longer than Itara was comfortable with to recognize that cock-sure tone but much less time to regret her choice to cling to him.  Unfortunately, she could do nothing about it, despite her best efforts.  Her body was still shaking violently and even _he_ was more protection than she had previously.  She could hear someone else shouting in the background, but didn’t recognize the voice, and thus could only focus on the hedgehog awkwardly attempting to pat her head despite the jutting crystals.

“Come on now, calm down.  It’ll be alright.  I gotta finish kicking butt, though, so why don’t we get you to safety?  You’re gonna have to loosen up that grip, though.”

Itara had to take several deep breaths before her arms unlocked enough to do so, though kept her eyes shut tightly.  Sonic gave a slight sigh of relief when she did, but as he was moving to pick her up, a light _clack_ rung out nearby and stopped him in his tracks.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“It’s been awhile, Sonic.”  That voice, Itara recognized immediately causing her eyes to shoot open.  Robotnik was _right there_!  What was he thinking?!

“Man, not long enough.  Though I suppose with a wide scale Egghead attack, I should have expected you to be here, too, Metal.”

“Hmph, I no longer work for that idiot.”

“You don’t say.”  There was a brief moment of silence before Sonic turned back to Itara, seeming caught off-guard for a moment when he looked down at her, before shaking his head.  “You may wanna move back.  Are you gonna be okay to move on your own?”

Itara had no idea how to respond.  She knew she needed to stop Metal, but knew that was an increasingly impossible task.  Stopping him from fighting a random monster was one thing, even with all his pent up aggression, but stopping him from fighting Sonic was a beast all its own.  She doubted she could even stop RK from fighting Knuckles if they met face-to-face again, let alone Metal and Sonic.  All she could do was nod, glance towards Metal, and back away from the fight.  What was she supposed to do?  What if Metal got caught?  What if he got too damaged and couldn’t get back home to get fixed?  She didn’t have anything to fix him here.

She had to call RK.

She had to tell him to stop Metal.

As the battle continued, she searched frantically for her phone, only then realizing that her backpack had been torn open and she lost everything inside.  Throwing the remains of the straps off and searching frantically for the phone, she had to retreat before long due to the continuing battle.  Between Metal, Sonic, the monsters, and the badniks, her search was only getting more dangerous.  She had to get out of the way.  She couldn’t chance it.  But then what did she do?!  Maybe she could find Kipper again.

Looking towards the half-collapsed university building, she cringed as she realized there were already badniks heading in to retrieve what Robotnik was after.  She couldn’t outrun them.  Even if half the entrance wasn’t covered in rubble, she wouldn’t be able to reach the museum before the flying bots.  But she could at least maybe find Kipper.  Maybe he got the manuscripts first, but more importantly, she didn’t want to be alone right now.

Keeping to the edges of the grounds and skirting around the monsters again, she continued towards the building, knowing at least the haunted doll would be safe from the chaos.  Even if he ran into monsters or robots, he could turn incorporeal and be fine.  She just had to find him again.  She just had to reach the building.

But once again, long before she ever got to the entrance, something picked her up by the back of the shirt and stopped her trek short.  A number of possibilities of who it was ran through her head before they turned her towards them, to the point that she didn’t know if she should be panicked or relieved and only went back into a defensive curl.  She couldn’t take much more of this today.

“You again?  Why do I always find you at the center of this?”  It was none of the voices Itara had initially expected to hear and opened an eye to look up at the tall, blond-haired red robot.  “There is more to you than initial appearances suggested.”  It wasn’t a question and Itara could only stare in confusion, too frantic from the day’s events to fully process what he was saying, or the fact that he was walking away from the university with her still in-tow.  “I have questions and I feel as though you may be able to answer some of them, so I’m bringing you back for questioning.  I have no intention to harm you, so long as you don’t attack first, but I want information.”

Itara shook her head to try and clear her thoughts, the sounds of battle growing distant much quicker than she expected, and attempted to look back to find out.  The university grounds, with the monsters and robots and fighting hedgehogs, were far behind them now, causing enough minor panic.  Now that she was thinking more clearly, she realized they had gone behind the line of warbots and were headed towards a far-off, distinctly egg-shaped aircraft hovering nearby.  Robotnik!  He was taking her to Robotnik!  She couldn’t go there!

Panic set in full again as she thrashed around, attempting to escape or call out for Metal or Kipper, causing Zero to stop and fix his grasp to keep her from simply slipping out of her shirt.  “Keep still, as I said, I won’t harm you.  I only want answers.”  His voice was flat and harsh, despite his attempt to reassure her, though luckily she was used to that dealing with robots and Gods.  What she feared was the hovercraft in front of them.

“D-Don’t ta-take me to… Robotnik!” she begged, still attempting to escape his grasp, though was getting nowhere.  “I c-can’t!  He can’t!  I… I…!”

There was a moment of silence as Zero tightened his grip to keep her from squirming, getting the much smaller hedgehog in a lock, but remained in place.  “Do you fear Dr. Robotnik?”

“I-I fear n-nothing!” Though the tremble in her voice did little to convince him of that.

Another silence.

Then, “Do you have reason to fear the Doctor?”

“No!  He’s nothing to me!  Nothing!  I just… I… he…”  She couldn’t explain this to him.  Not only did she know next to nothing about this bot, no one even remembered the past timelines, and in Robotnik’s case it was best kept that way.  If he was working for Robotnik, explaining that he’s a bad person was meaningless, and explaining his potential of wanting to harness her power was even worse.  “Please… just… ask me what you want… just please don’t-.”

But her begging was as meaningless as her attempts to reach the museum as Robotnik, himself, walked out from hovercraft to meet Zero.  “How goes the retrieval, Zero?”  Though once he spotted the tiny, crystallized hedgehog in the robot’s grasp, his eyebrow rose, “what is this?”

Zero looked between Itara and the Doctor, suddenly unsure how to answer.  He’d had his suspicions about the Doctor for a while now, but hadn’t found anything concrete just yet, nor had he found anyone else with the resources to help him.  Without details on the situation, he decided to remain on-mission, and explained, “A child that I have crossed paths with a couple times before.  I found her at the university.  Though she appears different from your normal mobians.”  Itara whimpered, attempting to curl in on herself further.  Stupid, _stupid crystals!_

“I’ll say,” Robotnik muses, walking closer to inspect the young girl, “bring her inside for now, we’ll… _talk_ to her later.  For now, how goes the retrieval of the Gaia Manuscripts?”

“Unsuccessful.  It seems they were stolen from their casings before we arrived.  Also, Sonic arrived, just as you predicted, though someone else has attracted his attention.”

“Who?”

“I believe Sonic called him ‘Metal’.”

“Metal?  Are you certain?!”

“Yes.”

With another whine from Itara, the doctor huffed and crossed his arms, turning back towards the hovercraft, “Draw back for now.  We’ll leave some scout-bots behind to keep an eye out for those manuscripts.  We need to revise our plans in the meantime.”  Zero nodded, looking over the silent hedgehog in his arms before following the doctor inside.  He would be keeping a personal eye on the hedgehog while she was in their company.  Both to ensure no harm befell her, but also to see what answers he could get from her.

 

“Humph, are you slowing down with age, _faker_?” Metal grinned over at the blue hedgehog as he attempted to pull himself up out of the rubble.  Though they had both received considerable damage throughout the fight, Metal easily enough noticed the slower movements from his organic counterpart halfway through and took quick advantage of it.  He didn’t know if it was the upgrades, or how long it’d been since ‘the blue blur’ had a true rival in terms of speed, but it satisfied the robot far more than he expected.  Having been out of commission for so long, even missing limbs for several months after reactivation, it was vilifying, finally fighting Sonic again, and even _winning_ for once.

“Who me?” Sonic grinned, his legs visibly shaking once he pulled himself back up, his grin never leaving his face, “Nah, I’m just takin’ it easy on ya to make you feel better.  What with always getting beat down and destroyed time after time.”

“Is that so?” Metal grinned, taking off after him again, planting a foot firmly in the hedgehog’s chest, sending him flying once more.  As he watched with amusement, even going so far as to outwardly laugh, a floating, half-visible orange figure floated over.

“Aren’t you supposed to be babysitting?” the doll reprimanded, his usual amusement ever-present, his bright red gem glowing considerably stronger than his half-corporeal body.

“Leave me, _ghost_.  I have no time for your mockery,” Metal growled, not taking well to the interruption.

Kipper only laughed and shrugged, scanning the area before adding, “Have it your way.  But I won’t be around when you face the wrath of Mama Bear.”  The doll slowly floated further away, giving Metal enough time to sigh heavily and stop him.

“Why?”

Kipper continued floating for a moment before stopping and looking back with a fang-filled grin, “Because the little hedgie just got nabbed by Robotnik.”

A string of curses escaped as Metal scowled back towards where the line of warbots had disappeared to.  Scanning the distant hill, he noticed the easily recognizable hovercraft taking off and looked between it and the struggling Sonic with a seething hatred.  If she had just been badly injured or disappeared, it would have been one thing.  RK would have been pissed but he could deal with that.  But being taken by Robotnik was an entirely different story.  Not only was being in Robotnik’s hand’s a worse fate than being dismantled, but it put them all in danger.  She spent so much time warning _him_ about being caught by Robotnik, but then it ended up being _that reckless child_!

Growling furiously, he threw one final threatening look at Sonic before turning on his heel and taking off after the hovercraft, haunted doll following close behind.  She would regret this, once he got his hands on her again!  Distracting him from finally fighting Sonic again!  That selfish brat!  He no longer cared about this stupid trip of hers, as soon as he retrieved her they were both going _home_!


	24. Retreat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Metal Sonic heads back home to face the wrath of Mama Bear... and plan a rescue.

Warnings and flashing screens filled the majority of Metal’s view as he chased after the escaping hovercraft, keeping pace with it as he ran through his options.  While he had come out mostly victorious from the fight with Sonic, he still took his fair share of damage and it was becoming increasingly apparent.  Even if he could easily catch up, and maybe even fight his way inside, the chances of him finding Itara and escaping again, especially in such a small space, was unlikely.  Not even at top speed would he be able to avoid Robotnik’s gaze in the situation at hand and the likelihood of either being destroyed or captured was too high to risk.

Especially with the mystery factor of the new robot.

If the doll was to be believed, Itara was dragged off by the unfamiliar robot that had appeared several months ago.  As suspicious as Metal was of the doll, he knew Itara could never have traveled the distance to the hovercraft so quickly on her own, nor would she have done it so freely.  She wanted to avoid Robotnik as much as all of them, so it made more sense that an outside force was the cause of her capture.

“Tails Doll, what do you know of the robot?”  The hovering doll was still somehow following him, even at his current speed.

“Oh, you mean Ponytail?” Kipper questioned, shrugging, “Not much.  I’m not usually around when they run into him.  From what I’ve overheard, though, it sounds like he’s a pretty skilled fighter and not one of Robotnik’s creations.  A wild card.  I’m insulted, that’s my job.”

Metal rolled his eyes, but refocused on the hovercraft as it gained distance.  Not that the craft was speeding up, but because he was slowing down.  The flashing warnings were growing increasingly difficult to ignore and Metal knew the current chase was a doomed mission.  As concerned as he was about the doctor having the time traveler, he had no choice but to retreat and recoup for now.  He needed repairs… and maybe RK’s help.  Kipper looked over at him strangely when he suddenly turned around and headed back towards the university.

“Where are you going?”

“The tiny child’s phone was directly linked to RK’s comm unit, was it not?”

“Yeah, always has been.”

“If I recall correctly, her backpack was torn during the fight, meaning her phone was likely amongst the scattered contents.  I require repairs and backup for the highest chance of success, but we’ll need to move quickly so it’ll be beneficial to have RK prepared before I return.”  Metal came to a sliding stop back in what remained of the campus square, surveying the damage as the last of the monsters retreated.  Whatever drew them there had apparently left, as well.

“Mama Bear’s _not_ gonna be happy about this.”

Metal remained silent as he searched the area for the small black device.  He was already inwardly dreading the conversation, but he refused to let the doll goad a reaction out of him.  He found the torn backpack first, but it took considerably more searching to find the phone in the carnage.  Unfortunately, his search proved a waste of time as the phone was snapped clean in half.  It would be of no use to any of them any longer.  Well, on the plus side, it meant he had the entirety of his run back to Soleanna to prepare to face RK.  However, on the other hand it meant there would be no buffer between him and RK’s immediate rage upon learning that Itara was kidnapped.

Sighing outwardly, he glanced up at the floating doll, “Can you keep up with my top speed?”  It was an odd question for him, considering no one _usually_ could, but he was unsure about the non-physical form of the doll.  The disconcerting nature of the question only caused the grinning doll to grin further before he answered.

“I can.”

“Good.  Then keep up.”  Without another word, Metal mapped out the fastest route to the base back in Soleanna, adjusting for populated areas, and took off at full speed.  He had no time to waste.

 

* * *

 

 

RK pulled his claws back out of the glowing orange monster that lay in a heap beside him, eyeing it sharply to ensure it didn’t get back up before sighing heavily.  Before he had much more time to study it or even step back, the sharp squeal of the ever-clingy human woman that had been with him rung out and he found a sudden weight on his arm.

“That was terrifying!  I’m so glad you were with me, RK!  I would have been eaten alive by that thing!”

Remaining silent, RK sent another vicious glare back at the dead creature before turning back towards the road, not wanting to stick around much longer.  As satisfying as it was to get his claws in something again, it was risky to fight in such an open, populated area.  Well, it _had_ been populated, now it was fairly cleared out due to the dead heap he was now walking away from.  He was doing his best to ignore Lynda, who was clinging desperately to his other arm, but was having a hard time of it as she continued to chatter on.

The monster attacks had continued in a steady stream, but where Sonic and Zero had been culling their numbers for a while they were nowhere to be found the last couple of days.  He had to wonder why, but after hearing about the earthquake in Spagonia, he could only guess their attention had been drawn there.  As annoying as it was, it would have been manageable, until Lynda came over begging him to join her for a shopping trip.  He had, of course, refused at first, but when she nearly cried at the prospect of being attacked by all the ‘terrible monsters’, he found it hard to continue refusing.  Not because he felt sorry for her, but because it could potentially anger or insult her and he still had reservations about getting on Lynda’s bad side.  So, miserably, he accepted and found himself where he was now.  In the middle of the city, openly fighting another of Iblis’ monsters that shouldn’t even exist anymore, with Lynda hung on his arm.

“Let’s just hurry and finish and return home,” he commanded, leading her to the next location on her checklist so they could hurry and get out.  In any other circumstance, the chance to fight again would be a welcome relief, but at the moment it did nothing but spell misfortune for him.  Besides, he was concerned about Itara and Metal and didn’t feel like being distracted by Lynda in case either of them called him again.  If something big enough to draw both Sonic and Robotnik’s attention was happening in Spagonia, he feared what it meant for the other two.

He would have his answer soon enough, however, as a message popped up from Metal.  RK stopped, his brow’s furrowing at the sudden message before he even opened it.  Metal should be far out of his range right now, and the message wasn’t coming from Itara’s phone, it was coming directly from the other bot.  Lynda stopped and looked up at him strangely, but he ignored her as he opened the message to read it.

‘Where are you?’

‘In the city, why are you within range?’

‘Return to the base.  There’s an emergency.’

RK growled, sending a final message to Metal before turning to Lynda again and questioning, “Change of plans, we need to return home now.”

“What?  Well… I suppose that’s fine.  We got most of my shopping done and, to be honest, I don’t really feel like being around here anymore.”

RK nodded and debated for a moment before sighing and reaching over, picking the human woman up, much to her surprise.  It would be faster to run.  It might cause problems later, but if there was an emergency, he couldn’t waste time with trains, nor could he just abandon Lynda in the middle of the city.  He had to take the chance with running.  “Keep a tight hold of your bags,” he warned, watching the woman turn several shades of red as she nodded.  Once he was sure she and her belongings were secure, he planned out the path and took off.

Normally he would wait until he was outside the city limits before taking off at full speed, but he didn’t have time.  When he prompted Metal about had happened, he only got a repeat ‘emergency’ response, prompting him to send a message to Itara’s phone to question her, instead, but the connection was still cut off.  He knew she was leaving her phone off for the trip, but if there was some kind of emergency she should have turned it back on to contact him.  It was the main reason she brought it along.  Which either meant something happened to the phone itself or Itara.  He liked neither answer.

It was a longer run than he would have liked back to the neighborhood, considering he was carrying extra weight that wasn’t used to his speed and he had to dodge crowds on his way through the city, but he came to a stop in front of Lynda’s before too much longer.  Setting her down, he checked that she would be alright before apologizing and continuing down the street to their house.  He nearly accidentally tore the front door off its hinges as he rushed in, calling out for Metal, Itara, or Kipper, whoever answered first.

Except none of them did.

Instead, all he got was another message from Metal explaining he was downstairs in the lab.  Why was he home?  Wasting no time, he continued down to the lab and yelled out for Metal as soon as he opened the basement door.  As he descended the stairs and Metal Sonic and Kipper came into sight, he glanced around for the missing member of their group.  At no sign of the hedgehog, he turned a glare back to the damaged Metal Sonic getting himself hooked up to the computer after grabbing the tools he needed to repair himself.

“Where is Itara?  Why are you damaged?  And home?  What happened?”

“Before I tell you anything, calm down.  I’m in no state to fight, as you can plainly see.”

“Metal, I swear.”  But RK took a moment to calm his systems, grateful for the ability to just close out problematic programs as needed.  As useful as emotion upgrades had proven over the years, they had their drawbacks, as well.  Luckily, they could be disabled, like any other program.  “Fine.  What is it?”

Metal eyed him cautiously, but nodded once he confirmed he wouldn’t be hit.  “First off, this entire trip has been a nightmare and you’re a _bastard_ for making me go on it at all.  But that aside, while we were on our tour of the university –and I was so diligently keeping your tiny child from escaping my sight –we ran into… _trouble_.  The university was attacked, by both those monsters that have been appearing, and Robotnik.”  Despite the disabled programs, RK hitched at the mention of the Doctor, but Metal continued, “Unfortunately, the annoying _hedgehog_ appeared, as well.”

“Metal,” there was a rather distinct accusation in RK’s tone that Metal didn’t much like.  He had a feeling the emotional override would boot itself back up with the final news.  He had to word this carefully to keep blame as far off him as possible.

“It was chaos, RK.  I lost sight of the tiny child when she went for the museum in the midst of it all and… well… it seems she was picked up by that other red robot you’ve had repeated run-ins with and taken to Robotnik.”

“What?!  _Robotnik_ has her?!”

“Before you start blaming me, just know I attempted to retrieve her before returning.  Unfortunately, I took considerable damage fighting _Sonic_ and the chances of successful retrieval and escape were grim at best.  There was a higher chance of success if I returned, repaired myself, and we both went back out after them.”

RK closed his eye, taking a moment to process the news, Metal watching his clenching fist closely until he finally released it and opened his eye again.  There was murder in that gaze and Metal was glad to have it off him when RK turned to the computer, “tell me everything.”

“Plug in and I’ll share the files.”

As he did so, however, a realization occurred to him and he turned towards the ghost doll floating rather calmly nearby.  “Why are you here and not with Itara?  You can’t exactly be caught and someone should be with her.”

Kipper, who had only been floating nearby and listening to the conversation, grinned and shrugged, “I figured it’d be more interesting here.  Though, I admit, you didn’t explode nearly as much as I expected.  I’m always disappointed when I’m expecting a robot battle.”  He darted further away when RK swiped for him, however, and grinned wider, “what?  You want me to go _all_ the way back?  After such a long day?  What if I run out of energy before I get there?  I’d just get stuck somewhere.”

“Kipper, either you go watch after her or I’ll shove that stuffed body of yours down the drain,” the furious red robot threatened, in no mood for the doll’s antics.

However, instead of shrugging and leaving to go after the time traveler, as he’d always done before, the possessed doll only floated in place and crossed its tiny, plush arms.  “Nah.  Besides, you can’t, anyway.  Like you said, _it’s not like I can be caught_.”  Despite this, when RK’s fury seemed to finally explode and all that kept him in place were the cables attached to the computer, the doll floated further away until he disappeared into the far wall, vanishing from sight.

Metal watched the doll until he was gone, and then turned a wary eye to RK.  He knew the doll enjoyed poking at everyone he could and pushing his luck, but even Metal thought that was too risky for the current situation.  Did he leave to go after Itara, after all, or did he simply run away?  They couldn’t be sure and, because of that, RK was unpredictable and could be dangerous at the moment.  Unfortunately, unlike the ghost, he had no choice but to remain in place so he would need to calm the other bot however he could.

Looking up towards the screen to check the percentage on the file transfer, noting that it was just over half, he turned back to RK and offered a cautious, “Even I know the possessed doll only enjoys seeing how far he can push it before people snap.  But I believe he likely left to go after the hedgehog, seeing as he barely seems to leave her side.”

There were several long moments of distressing silence before the other bot finally let out a long, slow vent of air and dropped his stiffened stance ever so slightly.  Turning back to the computer to study the transfer, himself, he shook his head to clear it.  “I’m aware.  But there was something in his tone this time that I’d never seen in the doll before.  I don’t know if he truly went after her or if he ran, but I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it for the time being.  Instead, we should focus our energy on a retrieval plan.”  Looking back to Metal, he studied the damage the other robot had taken, estimating the repair time, before sighing, “We have no time to waste.”

“My repairs will take a day, at least,” Metal responded, “Perhaps half a day if we both work on them.  In the meantime, we should collect what information we can about the situation.  The base you went to before, do you think Robotnik is still at the same one?”

“It’s hard to say, it’s been months since then, he could very well have moved again.  What was he travelling in?  It’s possible he won’t be returning to a base at all just yet.”

Metal’s brows furrowed as he considered the carrier he’d followed, studying its outward design and realizing RK was likely right.  It wasn’t the largest one the doctor owned by any stretch, but it was one of the larger ones, meant for longer travelling.  The university may have been one stop of many.  Which would complicate tracking him down considerably.  Then again, Robotnik was anything but stealthy, if he was out wreaking havoc anywhere else like he had at the university they could track him by the destruction he’d leave behind.  Glancing up at the computer again, he considered the various systems built into it, having once been a Robotnik base at one point.  “If we reconnect the communication system in the computer…”

“We could find him, easily, but it could also alert Robotnik to this base being active again, meaning he could track us down again even if we manage to retrieve Itara and escape.”

“It’s not like going after her, in the first place, is going to be much safer.  Especially if he’s staying on that glorified blimp, he’ll know we’re there and he’ll know it’s us.  Even _if_ we manage to evade capture in the process, he’ll track us down.  We got lucky he hasn’t since the reset, that he doesn’t remember seeing _you_ at all, we won’t be so lucky this time.”

The lab fell to silence again as the two bots went into their thoughts and ran the possibilities separately.  Once the files finished transferring, RK went through them, checking over every detail of everything Metal shared with him, stopping to question him about a situation only once or twice.  The event with Chip, the breakdown outside the restaurant, and the nightmare were of the most note to him.

“Did the other half of Gaia ever show up after that?” RK questioned, disconnecting from the computer to begin Metal’s repairs.

“No, not that I’ve seen.  I expect it to, though.”

“With everything happening with the Gods, I wouldn’t be surprised,” RK sighed again, “I spent so long trying to keep Itara away from all this, I thought the school trip would be a _distraction_ … even with the manuscripts.”

“Speaking of,” Metal interrupted, opening one of his compartments and pulling several aged, folded papers from it and holding it out, “I don’t believe Itara was the only one after these.”

RK looked up from where he was working on Metal and eyed the aged documents rather harshly before turning his gaze to Metal, “ _You_ grabbed them?”

“If Itara thought they were so important to figuring out what was going on, it stood to reason someone else might, as well, namely Robotnik.  I figured it best to keep it out of his hands.”  Unfolding the papers carefully, he scanned the barely legible glyphs etched into the yellowed paper, “I highly doubt these were all of them, but they were the ones displayed in the school’s museum.”

RK went back into thought as Metal got to studying and translating the pages he had.  He wasn’t sure if they would be of any use to them, but it was something to do as he waited to be repaired.  Besides, if he went to the trouble of getting them, he might as well at least know what they said.  Maybe there would be something somehow relevant in them, maybe it would be useless, out-of-context garbage, but he wouldn’t know until he translated it.

Several hours into their work, however, an alert popped up on the screen, informing them of a presence at the front door.  Metal and RK both looked up towards it, seeing a concerned-looking Lynda, frantically ringing the doorbell, her coat hastily thrown on as she clung to it with her other hand.  RK sighed but Metal disregarded it and went back to his papers.  However, he looked up again when RK moved away from him, headed for the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“To see what’s wrong.”

“Why?  I thought we didn’t have time to waste?”

“We don’t, so run a scan while I’m gone.”

Metal glared, but initiated the scan, going back to the papers.  If RK wanted to waste his time with the humans again, that was no concern of his.  RK, however, continued upstairs and reached the door before long, mentally preparing for the bombardment of questions that was likely to come.  When he opened the door Lynda jumped, as if she somehow wasn’t expecting him to answer, before looking over with the wildest expression he’d seen on the normally collected woman.  “What is it?”

“What is it?!  Didn’t you hear?!”  RK nearly recoiled as Lynda waved wildly, continuing, “I just heard it on the news!  The university was attacked, the ones the kids were supposed to be at today!”  That was faster than he’d been expecting, but he had been expecting it at some point.  He was just also hoping to be gone by the time the rest of the neighborhood heard about it.  But now the question was: did he play clueless?  Or tell her he knew?  Maybe he could use that as an explanation for the run.

“I know, I heard,” he finally decided, “It’s why I rushed back earlier, I got a message from… Sparky that there was an emergency.”

“Are they alright?  The reports said monsters _and_ robots attacked and that a lot of people were badly injured.  They said something about that terrible Robotnik guy being the cause of it, that it was his terrible robots that attacked, such awful inventions just running amok!”

RK almost wanted to laugh, but resisted and shook his head.  If the neighborhood knew enough about Robotnik to at least know his creations were usually extremely destructive in nature, it was all the more important they never find out their true identity.  But he wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, either.  Metal was back home already and down in the basement, getting repaired and mostly fine, but he didn’t even know where Itara was now.  He couldn’t tell Lynda that, though, she would cause too big of a ruckus, and as concerning as it was, he didn’t need that right now.  Finally, he responded, “I don’t know the full details yet, myself.  Sparky only messaged me to tell me about the attack, luckily he’s a very capable fighter so I trust him to keep both himself and Itara safe under even those situations.”

Lynda watched him with several layers of concern and confusion before her face finally softened and she forced a smile.  Her brows furrowed in confusion again, though, as she half-laughed, “You mobians really are something else, aren’t you?  That was some run earlier.”

“I suppose,” now RK wanted to escape again, not wanting to talk about the run.  “That said, I’m waiting for a call from them and I’d rather not be distracted when it comes so…”

“Oh, right, of course,” Lynda frowned, finally calming enough to realize how flustered she was and going about fixing her coat and hair, “I do hope Susan and Camilla are okay, as well.  I tried calling Susan when I heard but she isn’t answer her phone.  Let me know if you hear anything else, alright?”

RK nodded and Lynda turned to leave, giving another wave from the end of the driveway before RK closed the door and sighed heavily.  Shaking his head, he returned to the lab and Metal’s side to continue fixing him.  The other bot remained silent for several minutes after his return, as did RK, until Metal spoke up, “you were out with the human when I returned?”  There was a tone in Metal’s voice that RK could swear almost sounded like _jealousy_ , but shook his head.

“The monsters have been running unchecked here since the events in Spagonia sparked up and Lynda was concerned about getting her shopping done in one piece.  I only accompanied her because she wouldn’t leave me alone otherwise,” RK explained, continuing his work without looking up at the other bot, “unfortunately, it meant I had to run home when you messaged me and I couldn’t very well leave her in the middle of the city.”

“I see.”

The subject dropped after that, but RK was still picking up on some pouting from Metal for another hour or so afterwards.  Though he wasn’t sure why.  If he was angry about revealing too much to an untrustworthy human, RK assumed he would have simply said so, but that wasn’t the case.  But he didn’t have the time to worry about it, either, he needed to focus on repairs and a plan to get Itara back with as minimal danger as possible.  It would be no easy task, but the less they risked, the better.  Hopefully Itara would be able to hold out on her own until they could reach her.


	25. Caught

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captured with nowhere to go and no way to escape, Itara faces Robotnik for the first time since the original timeline...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long delay between chapters, guys.  
> Between running out of backlog chapters, a convention, and a new schedule, my upload schedule got a little wonky. It should be back to the normal weekly upload now, though. That said, because of said change in schedule, I'll be uploading on Fridays instead of Saturdays now, but other than that, should be all normal.

No matter how hard she banged on the glass separating her from the outside room, it neither budged nor drew the attention of those around her.  Her arms were heavy and thick cords restrained her every movement, pumping a strange purple liquid into her veins that made her head foggy and her legs wobble.  The room outside the tube was filled with massive electrical wires and giant, roaring machines at every corner, all connected to a bulky computer directly in front of her.  The screen displayed a collection of graphs and numbers and outputs that made no sense to her, no matter how she looked at them.  The heavier she felt, the blurrier her vision became, and the harder the screen was to read.

She was tired and groggy and confused and could barely comprehend anything she was looking at, beating weakly against the glass until her fist slid helplessly down to her side.  Her body was giving out on her.  The large, round man at the computer in front of her finally turned her way, goggles obscuring the sharp, peering eyes behind them, and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open long enough to study him, study his shape, remember his face… in case she ever escaped.

As she was dragged relentlessly to the darkness of her subconscious, the faraway sounds of explosions and furious growls echoed through the open doorway.  Metal walls creaked and collapsed in on themselves, drawing the man’s attention away from his experiment.   Alarms blared frantically as electricity zapped and snapped through the base, the roar of a tornado tearing through the facility caused a panic the small hedgehog could only mildly react to.  The searing heat reached her even inside the tube and as the man ran out, panicking, screaming wildly, she knew she likely wouldn’t ever see him again.

She didn’t want to be left alone.  Even if it was some mad doctor, something about the heat felt so much worse, so much more dangerous.  Something that would destroy her, rather than simply use her for her powers.  She had to escape, she had to break free, she had to…

 

Itara stared up at the strange red robot for some time when she noticed him.  He looked as though he were waiting for an answer to something, some question she never heard.  She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what it was, either.  She shook the images from her head and glanced around before returning her gaze to the tall red robot.  Zero, his name was, she remembered that much, at least.  But she didn’t know anything else about him.

She didn’t know where he stood, nor who or what he was, he was a complete wild card and she didn’t like it.  The only thing she knew for sure at this moment was that he brought her to Robotnik and that was all she needed to know.  He brought her to Robotnik and put her in this situation.  Whatever happened on this ship was his fault.

She took another step away from him and narrowed her eyes.  She wanted nothing to do with him.  Even if he promised not to harm her, or not to let harm befall her, he had already done that by bringing her here.

“T-Take me home.”

“I will do so once I have my answers,” the towering bot stated flatly.  “So, I’ll ask once more: who and what are you?”

Itara remained silent.  She wouldn’t answer that so easily.  She couldn’t, even if she wanted to.  “I’m Itara,” she frowned, “I’ve already told you my name once before.  And I’m just a hedgehog.”

“I didn’t ask your name, and judging by the Doctor’s response to your appearance, it’s safe to assume you’re not an average hedgehog.”  She winced, but remained silent.  “So, for the final time, _what_ are you?”

There was a distinct threat behind his voice, suggesting she answer if she didn’t want to get hurt.  It would have easily scared anyone, especially a child, and Itara briefly debated putting up an act to keep him from guessing otherwise.  She realized, however, how meaningless that would be and only glared.  She didn’t scare that easily and she wasn’t telling him her nature just so he could go tell Robotnik.  There was more at stake than her physical well-being if he did.

When he realized she had no intention of answering he narrowed his eyes and stood back up.  He towered over her, even more so than RK or Metal; if Itara had to guess he was even taller than the humans in their neighborhood.  But she spent the first two-hundred years of her life dealing with Iblis; a too-tall robot wasn’t about to shake her.

“Fine.  Then you can just remain here.  I’ll be back.”

With that, he turned on his heel and stormed out, letting the heavy, metal door slam shut tight behind him, leaving Itara to her thoughts once more.  She sighed heavily once he did and let her legs slide out from underneath her, dropping her head with them.

“…RK…”

Pulling her legs up against her chest, she wrapped her arms around them, resting her head against her knees and curling up as tightly as possible.  Brave of a face as she’d put on, she honestly was terrified.  Not because of Zero, or even because of Robotnik, but because of the familiarity of the situation.  Captured and powerless, left alone with no help within reach.  The last time she faced this…

She shook the images from her head again.  If she slipped back into that, escape truly would be impossible.  No, she had to stay focused.  RK and Metal wouldn’t be able to rescue her in this situation, not this close to Robotnik, and she doubted even Kipper would draw near him.  She had to at least escape the airship on her own.  Somehow.

If she could just get off the ship, if she could just get away, it would differ from the past.

Sighing heavily again, she lifted her head enough to glance around the room, studying it for any possible means of escape.  It wasn’t a cell, at least.  If anything, it looked like unused lab space, with bare walls and no windows.  Everything was covered in thick metallic plates, like everything of Robotnik’s always was, and there were no noticeable fixtures or indents.  Even the heavy door simply slid into the wall and nearly disappeared if she hadn’t already seen where it was.

But why was she in here instead of a cell?

She knew there had to be some, it was a large enough carrier and Robotnik always had some sort of holding cell, usually designed for a specific blue hedgehog.  Was it because they thought she was just a child and they didn’t expect she could escape?  But surely Robotnik would recognize she’s no normal mobian and likely had some sort of power.  She doubted he knew she couldn’t control them, either.  So why such a lackluster response?  It was entirely unlike his responses to her in the previous timeline.  Then again, he had nothing to do with her creation in this timeline.  He had no idea who she was.

But what about the mobian girl?

She had still been kidnapped, likely still by Robotnik.  Itara had wondered, many times, just how much Solaris reset, but the changes had all been so random in nature that she could never truly pinpoint it.  Nor could she exactly ask him.  But this was the first situation where she desperately needed to know what was different.

What did Robotnik know?

Had her changed appearance actually kept him from recognizing her?  Or was everything about her erased from his memories?  She needed to know.  Maybe she could use this unfortunate situation to learn more about the reset, learn what Robotnik knew compared to what she knew.  Shadow hadn’t recognized her at all and Robotnik only realized she wasn’t normal.  Maybe she could drag some answers out of him if she played her cards right.

But first she would need to get out of this room.  It was as good a way as any to keep her distracted, at least.  With a determined nod, Itara began her trek around the small room, running her hand over the walls, studying the corners, looking for any indication of either a ventilation system or exit.  She didn't find much, however, and continued over to the door, staring up at it.

Just like everything else, it stretched far above her head and any likely panel to open it was well beyond her reach.  There had to be one inside, she knew, but it didn't do her any good if she couldn't even reach it, let alone find it.  She took a couple steps back to get a better view of the wall beside it, having to strain to find the outline of a removable panel.  Standing on her toes, her fingers just barely brushed the bottom indent and try as she might, she could do nothing to remove it.  When that didn't work, she gave a couple small hops in hopes she could grab onto something before she landed, but that went nowhere fast, either.  As a final resort, she gave the wall a swift kick in an attempt to intimidate it into listening to her… but that only offered a sore foot as a reward.

Huffing angrily, she sat down, both to think and rub her foot.  She had to get that door open.  Removing her shoe, she gave it a hearty chuck at the panel, but it only clanked against the metal and fell.

“Stupid Sparky… why’d he have to go and fight Sonic?  He was supposed to be watching me.”

Metal wasn't the only one she blamed for her predicament.  In addition to the red robot that brought her there and Metal, she also blamed Sceira.  If she hadn't been there, if she hadn't been so annoying, Itara would have gone straight to the museum with Kipper and none of this would have happened.  She could have gotten the manuscripts and gotten out and still at least been with Kipper.

Why did she even save that annoying scorpion in the first place?  She could have just as easily left her there and she would have been an unfortunate loss during the attack, Itara couldn't have even been blamed for it.  It would have been the perfect opportunity to finally be rid of the pain in her neck.  So why did she save her?  Why did she risk so much for _Sceira_?

It was a stupid mistake.

She wouldn't make it again.

Growling and pulling her thrown shoe back on, Itara marched around the empty room once more, giving a final, thorough look around, before returning to the door again.  With a heavy sigh, she turned around and leaned against the wall, sliding down and curling up again.  She hadn't felt so alone in so long she'd forgotten how awful it was.  She had gotten so used to having Kipper or RK, _or at least her phone_ with her, she felt lost without them.  Even her useless book would have been a comfort, she could at least write her thoughts down.  But she had nothing.

No powers, no book, no robots, no doll, nothing.

Before she could get too far back in her thoughts, however, the door slid open again, jolting her out of her head and causing a small screech of surprise to escape the tiny hedgehog.  The ghost of a smirk touched the robot’s face as Itara scrambled to her feet, glaring back at him and standing on the defensive.  He shook his head and motioned towards the hall, explaining, “We’ve got some things to discuss, come on.”

Itara remained in place, her spines prickling further at the potential threat, but no amount of prickling and glaring kept her feet on the ground as Zero walked over and picked her up by the back of the shirt again.  She attempted to wiggle out of his grasp, but found it just as useless as before and finally retreated back into her mind to devise a strategy.  She hated how little control she had over anything anymore.  Quietly begging with her powers, her dad, even her book, to just give her control, even briefly, at least let her know where the current path led, she whimpered to herself when no such assistance came.

She was utterly at the mercy of Dr. Robotnik and the strange robot named Zero.

As they continued down the hallway, Itara taking note of every detail she could along the way, the familiar sounds of electrical wires and whirring machinery echoed from every direction.  Itara had no doubt in her mind every inch of this ship was covered in some manner of defense that only Sonic’s – or Metal Sonic’s – speed could possibly out match.  Escape would be difficult, but she already knew that going in.  Robotnik dealt with Sonic on a near-daily basis, he would have contingency plans for any number of situations, and her tiny, stumbling, powerless self would hold nothing to someone like Sonic or Tails.

She missed Kipper. She would have felt even a little better if the ghost doll was with her.

They came to another set of large, metallic, sliding double doors and Zero reached over to punch a short code into a pad beside it.  Itara did her best to remember it.  The doors slid open with a heavy _vwom_ and revealed the expansive main control room of the carrier.  There were a number of screens and videos displayed on the grid-based window to the outside, showing several locations inside the carrier as well as the cities and hillsides around them.  The video feed of Spagonia was growing smaller and smaller every second, tying a knot in Itara's stomach.

From what she could tell, they weren't headed back towards Soleanna, either.  She had been hoping maybe they would return to the base RK had infiltrated before, at least putting her back on the ground and within running distance of home.  But there was no such luck.  In fact, they appeared to be heading the opposite direction.

In a grand chair in front of the screens, inputting some sort of command in the console, was the large, round man of her past, those same goggles glinting off the screens before him.  Dr. Robotnik.  Eggman.  The cause of almost every great calamity to befall the world in its many timelines.  The single-handed creator of the killer robots of the Metal Series.  And, in a time reset, the cause of Itara's own initial creation, as well as the release of Mephiles and Iblis.  His far-reaching genius was something to be feared, and often was, with few exceptions, though Itara was not one of them.  She had seen his penchant for destruction a number of times over, both incidental and purposeful, and she wanted nothing to do with him.

Zero strode over to the chair at the center of the console, announcing his presence, and Itara felt her panic turn to terror with the turn of the chair, the reveal of that grinning face and those shining goggles.  Once more, she could feel the peering eyes behind them and the inevitable destruction they always caused, and her body shuddered in response.  Even for someone like her, whose goal was once to see the destruction of humanity, whose physical body was only a container for something greater, the unstoppable need for power consistent in Robotnik’s actions was a terrifying ordeal to face.

With Zero’s release of her shirt and her placement back on solid ground, she slid back down into a sitting position and stared up at her captors, frozen, shaking.  The two studied her before shifting their focus to one another.

“She refuses to answer any questions,” Zero explained, looking between the doctor and the small girl, a touch of suspicion in his tone as he explained, “it seems she’s quite afraid of you.”

A small grin spread across Robotnik’s face before he wiped it away again and leaned back, studying the little girl staring, horrified up at him, her bright green and purple eyes making him somewhat uncomfortable.  Shaking his head, he looked to Zero again, “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised.  I’ve explained what the mobians think of me, it’s not uncommon for the young ones to fear me.”  Something about the statement caught Itara’s attention as her previously flattened ears perked.  Turning back towards her, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, studying her, trying to understand her strange appearance.  “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.  We just want to ask some questions.”

Something was off.  He was putting up a face, though Itara couldn’t imagine why.  He’d never been the type to act coy around children, he’d been the one who initiated her kidnapping, after all.  Why the façade?  Itara’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, her ears pinning back again as she unconsciously leaned further away.  But the shift in expression in the Doctor brought her attention to her own movements as she sat up straight again, studying him.  She couldn’t be so obvious, if she wanted to learn what he knew, she’d have to play the same game.  She had to join the act.

She shook her head slowly, shifting her expression back to one of concern as she stammered, “L-like what?”

“Well, for starters, what’s your name?”

The strain in Robotnik’s voice and the look of frustration on Zero’s face would have gotten a laugh, realizing just how ridiculous the situation was.  Only one of them was putting on no act and he was the most out of place.  Meanwhile, both she and Robotnik were hiding their own natures, for one reason or another, and would likely get nothing out of the interaction about to happen, yet Zero seemed to be the most frustrated over this.  She became curious of his goal, as it clearly wasn’t the same as Robotnik’s.  What was he looking for, that he thought only Robotnik could give?  Perhaps she would start there.

After a short back and forth between her and Robotnik, neither of them gaining anything, just as she suspected, Robotnik grew frustrated first.  He turned away, waving for Zero to take over the conversation, which he seemed all too happy to do.  Itara watched Robotnik turn back towards his computer to go back to monitoring whatever progress was happening before shifting her gaze to Zero, who seemed to be debating how to go about getting answers from the small mobian ‘child’.  If Itara had to guess, he was normally a shoot-first-ask-questions-later sort of guy and having to reign that back was putting him on edge, in addition to whatever other problem he was apparently dealing with.  She decided to ease up the act ever so slightly with him, wanting answers, herself.

“If you promise to take me home, I’ll tell you about my crystals,” she offered, but interrupted before they could respond by pointing to Zero, “but it has to be _you_ , not him.”

Zero debated, but nodded, “fine, as I said before, I’ll take you home if you answer my questions, I have no intention of doing otherwise.”

Itara noticed the hitch in Robotnik’s face and shook her head, wanting to test the waters, “he does.  He doesn’t want to take me home.”

She watched Zero cast a long sideways glance towards the Doctor, studying both their expressions carefully until Robotnik waved the thought away.  “Nonsense,” he argued, though refused to turn towards them and kept his sight on the computers, “I have no need to keep a child here.”  She needed to push this further.

“There,” Zero responded, looking to her again, “I’ll take you home, so answer the question: what are those crystals?”  Itara remained silent, looking cautiously between the two, stalling for time to come up with an answer.  They weren’t exactly easy to explain, and she didn’t want to give Robotnik any ideas, she had to deal with the situation carefully to avoid piquing his interest.  But apparently, she remained quiet for too long and pushed the red robot a bit too far as she rather suddenly found the end of a glowing blue sword pointed in her direction, impatient blue eyes sparking behind them as he once again demanded, “answer the question.”

Itara jumped and scrambled further away, staring up at him with widened eyes.  She still wasn’t even sure what the sword was made of and didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.  “I-I-I don’t know!” she stammered, “they just… appear-show up sometimes!  Wh-when I’m upset!”

The answer drew Robotnik’s attention back as he turned towards them again, studying her and the angry bot.  “Are you the only one this happens to?”

Itara winced and looked away, the shining light of the sword still present in her peripheral.  That was a dangerous answer.  But what would be the best response?  “I… n-no, I…” her ears pinned back again, “m-my dad… could also do this but… he… he died… last year.”  The sword finally lowered and retreated into its hilt, giving her a moment to breathe, but it was short as Robotnik hummed, curious.

“Your dad, hm?”

The best lie was often sprinkled in with truth, she’d learned early on, but she doubted any amount of lie or truth would have kept Robotnik off her trail.  She was caught the second he saw her.  Perhaps she could have convinced someone else that she was just some kind of rare breed of mobian, but not Robotnik.  She kept her eyesight off to the side, curling in on herself again, lost in thought about both her situation and now the mobian parents that had, in fact died.  She wasn’t sure how to respond anymore.

“I… I told you… so… take me home now,” she mumbled, only looking up enough to watch their responses.  Zero studied her before turning his gaze to Robotnik, but the doctor only kept his sight glued to her.

“We will, in due time,” Robotnik responded, “but that wasn’t the only question we had.”  Of course it wasn’t.  “What do you know about Solaris and Gaia?”  Itara’s ears pinned tightly against her head as she cast a wary glance towards him, trying to look as confused as possible.

“What… do you mean?  Solaris is… Soleanna’s Sun God, right?”  The frustration in her voice when she uttered his name caught even her off-guard, and Zero’s attention.

“That’s right, you’re from Soleanna, aren’t you?” Robotnik continued.

“I… m-maybe.”

“Well we can’t take you home if we don’t know where that is, after all.  In fact, why don’t you come put your address here in my console and we can talk on our way there,” he motioned towards the long, backlit keyboard spread out across the table, reaching up to pull the GPS up for her.

Itara hesitated, eventually shaking her head, “I said he could take me home, not you.”  Even if she had no intention of giving either of them her real address, she didn’t want Robotnik even knowing where she’d be dropped off.  He reached up and rubbed his chin, seeming to consider this before shrugging.

“Alright, alright, then let’s talk a bit more, about the monsters that attacked.  Do you know what those were?”  Itara shook her head.  Of course, she knew, but he didn’t need to know that.  He continued once she did, “they were monsters created by Solaris and Gaia, two of the three main Gods of this world.  Do you know the last one?”

Chaos.

Now that Itara looked up to the GPS, she could see their current location and heading.  They had gone west from Spagonia, apparently, across the desert.  They were headed over the ocean.  The destination was Station Square.  So Robotnik did know something, he was on the exact same path as her.  But… how?  She had no further time to debate as the doctor turned to her once more.

“You look like you know, after all.  There’s more to you than just those crystals, aren’t there?”

“I…”

“So why were you at the university?”

“I… was just… on a field trip.  For school…”

“Is that so?”

“How…?”  Itara’s brows furrowed together in confusion, realizing what had struck her as odd before, “How did you… know about Solaris’ creations?”  No one should know what Solaris’ monsters looked like, no one but her.  How did Robotnik know they were his?  Robotnik remained silent, but grinned, and only then did Itara realize she gave herself away.  _She_ shouldn’t have known.


	26. Damage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara faces her demons and Zero tries to get some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... you may have noticed the lack of chapter last week.
> 
> Unfortunately, this entire month has thrown me through a loop and THIS CHAPTER IN PARTICULAR just absolutely would not work with me. It took me forever to finally edit this monstrosity into something readable and while I'm glad it's finally done, I'm pissed it took so long.
> 
> So, sorry to those who were waiting, hopefully no more hangups. Should go back to a normal schedule from here on. Hopefully.

Itara couldn’t tell what was worse: being in front of Robotnik or being back in the room.  She gave away too much already and spent even more time fumbling over her words to take it back or fix it, so she was better off away from him so she could recollect her thoughts.  But at the same time, the extent of his knowledge and the ambiguity of his intent, especially since she couldn’t escape the barren room on her own, only caused her further panic.

As soon as Zero took her back to the room and closed the door again, she returned to her spot on the floor next to the wall and curled right back up.  Her only source of comfort before was the fact that Robotnik didn’t know anything about her, and while he could still never guess her full power, the fact that he even knew the Iblis Biters were of Solaris’ creation caused her to question everything.  Why did he know?  _How_?  It wasn’t possible he _did_ actually know what she was, was it?  The idea made her skin crawl.

Shaking her head violently, she reached up and wrapped her hands around her ears.

Calm down.

_Calm down._

Just because Robotnik knew _something_ , it didn’t change everything.  It’s not like he… spent months chasing her down after her initial escape.  When she had no powers and was of no use to him.  Even if she escaped now, it’s not like he’d hunt her down again.  It’s not as though her _home_ was one of his old bases.  It’s not as though her only source of protection were _his_ robots, gone rogue.

What was the point of escaping?

Maybe she was better off staying, after all.  Her escape would only lead him back to RK and Sparky.  She was in too precarious a situation now.  Besides, maybe if Robotnik could activate her powers where she couldn’t, she could fix it, after all.

A hollow laugh filled the room before fading into quiet sobs as the hedgehog curled further in on herself, wrapping her arms around her head and drawing her legs tightly to her.  All because of her stupid crystals.  All because her crystals were showing.  She would have been looked over as another hedgehog if they hadn’t been showing.  Zero wouldn’t have even noticed her in the mayhem if she hadn’t been a literal shining beacon of attention.  A furious growl mixed with the sobs as she reached back to grab one of her crystal-covered spines.  She stared at them, for a long moment, the rage filling her eyes until she reached up with the other hand and attempted to snap them off.

She pulled at them, tried to snap them in half, even went so far as to slam them against the wall behind her.  Anything to get rid of them.  But they didn’t budge.  She clawed, slammed, and bit until she wore herself out and tore the skin around them up, the crystals not suffering even a single chip.  With a final, half-hearted attempt to tear it off, she gave up and slumped back against the wall again, bursting into tears.  Her arms and quills and ears hurt, the crystals were still there, and Robotnik likely knew what she was now.

She could do _nothing_ about it.  She wanted to go home.  She wanted to go back to RK and never leave again.  She should never have gone on the stupid trip in the first place: She didn’t even _get_ to the manuscripts.  It had all been a waste.

After what felt like hours of crying, her eyes finally seemed to dry up and left her tired and drained.  She leaned back and smacked her head against the wall behind her, staring off at the metal-covered ceiling blankly.  Everything hurt and the mystery of what was happening outside of her cell frightened her.  She couldn’t hear anything, she couldn’t see anything, and she couldn’t leave.  She was completely locked in and isolated.

At least, isolated for a while.  As she dozed off, the door slid open beside her, starling her awake though she didn’t move as the tall, red robot walked in.  She had wanted it to be RK so badly, but of course it wasn’t.  He only took a couple steps in, enough for the door to close behind him, and turned to look at her, eyeing her strangely.  She sighed and looked away, knowing her eyes were likely red from crying and didn’t want anyone to see.  Especially not him.  He was just as much at fault for her situation as she was now and she hated him equally.

“Do you have no control over your powers?”

The question was so direct it took Itara a moment to process it.  She had hoped they at least wouldn’t catch onto that, but of course they would figure it out.  If she had control, she would have used them by now-- she obviously didn’t want to be there, she would have attempted to escape if she had access to her power.  With another small sigh, she muttered, “Wh-what makes you th-think that?”  Maybe there was some small semblance of a chance they didn’t actually know, maybe she could trick them into thinking she was exactly where she wanted to be and hadn’t escaped because she didn’t want to.  It was the most basic of cons, but she was out of ideas.

“Because I have seen you without the crystals and you have damaged yourself trying to get rid of them.  It seems most likely this is not your normal state of being and if you had control over them, you wouldn’t need to _break_ them off.”  Itara glared up at him, but said nothing and turned away again.  He waited for a response before moving to crouch in front of her, studying her further.  “The Doctor believes your power may be able to assist us.  Perhaps if you cooperated, we can help you access them again.”  The uncertainty in his voice caught her attention again as she turned back just enough to side eye him, studying the struggle for words on his face.

“A friend of mine, back home,” he continued, when he got no further response, “once had to teach me this lesson, that you’re stronger together than trying to handle everything on your own.  I also once believed everyone was an enemy and trusted no one, and admittedly I still don’t trust easily, but him, I’d rely on.  I don’t belong here, and your powers may be of use getting me back to him.”

Itara tilted her head curiously, noting the distinct hint of homesickness on the bot’s face, a sadness in the sharp blue eyes.  “Where is… home for you?”

“Nowhere you’d know.  I’m not from your world,” Zero responded, sharpening his gaze again as he looked off, “There are no mobians where I’m from, only humans, robots, and combinations of the two.  The city I’m from is overrun by what we call mavericks, robots that have gone rogue and wreak havoc.  My friend and I, as well as our team, hunt them down to keep the peace.  I suppose the closest thing you have to this, from what I’ve gathered, is your Metal Sonic.”

Itara’s eyes narrowed, taking a moment to think about what he could mean.  Metal had been inactive for months, he hadn’t been wreaking havoc since before the reset, not since going rogue.  She thought about correcting him, but resisted.  She’d already said too much.  The story struck her as fishy, seeing as Metal’s done nothing but lay around playing video games since going rogue, but she couldn’t tell Zero that.  Especially since Metal had been fighting Sonic right there at the university, she couldn’t argue the point.

Instead, she shook her head, “I’m never… ever cooperating with Robotnik.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s responsible for more chaos than the robots ever would be, especially on their own.  They’re _his_ robots, after all.”

Zero remained silent to contemplate and Itara studied the suspicious gaze that touched his face as he did.  Once his expression returned to normal, he added, “What chaos has Robotnik been responsible for, exactly?  He has no control over the robots that go rogue, after all, and from what I understand, they went rogue to help _you_ , did they not?  All _three_ of us were present for that attack on the grocery outlet: you, me, and that red echidna.”

Itara had been ready to start in on every terrible incident Robotnik’s caused in the past, but at the mention of the rogue robots she stopped and her eyes widened in horror.  Robotnik knew Metal and RK were with her?!  How?!  He didn’t even know who she was until she let it slip!  Unless he did.  Did he know this entire time?  But why?  How?

“H-How did… why does Robotnik know that?!  He shouldn’t know that!  He can’t!”

Zero studied her, narrowing his eyes before explaining, “As I’ve said, I’m not from around here and I have no intention of getting any more involved than necessary.  But it wasn’t hard to figure out, according to him, once Metal Sonic went rogue and the attacks started.”

“But we… but he… we’ve been… we were trying so hard to…”  Itara curled back up, wrapping her hands around her ears and staring off, “we were trying so hard… to stay under his radar.  To stay under everyone’s radar.”

“You’ve failed, then.  Which is why you should give in and cooperate, instead.  You’re still young, I don’t know what you’ve been told by the others, but this mission of yours is meaningless.  You should take a better look at the world around you, choose the right side.”  Zero stood at this, looking down at the confused hedgehog as he turned back to the door, “it’s possible to change, even if you don’t think it is.  Consider this.”

Itara’s brows furrowed, only half hearing what he said, having been thrown right back into her internal panic.  Others?  Mission?  What mission?  Surely, he couldn’t be talking about helping humanity over Solaris, there was no possible way any of them could know about _that_ , at least, right?  As much as Robotnik seemed to know, he _couldn’t_ know of Solaris’ plans, not even she knew.  Besides, why would Robotnik want to help for once when he’s always the one putting everyone in danger.  It made no sense.  There had to be an ulterior motive, but what was he up to?  Why did he know so much to begin with?

Shaking her head, she looked up at the robot, who was halfway out the door again, “Wait.”  He stopped, moving his hand away from the pad to look down at her.  “Please… please tell me how he knows any of this.  No one should know any of this, _I_ don’t even know!”

Zero stared in confusion, but looked towards the door, “You should ask him this.  We’re not far from our next destination.  Give what I said some thought, we can talk again when we land.”  He reached for the pad again, walking through the door and closing it behind him.  With another heavy _thud_ Itara was left alone to her thoughts once more.  Whatever headache had started up from her crying only worsened.  She was confused and exhausted and in pain.  She just wanted to sleep.  Why couldn’t her powers work like they’re supposed to?  She curled up on her side, as tightly as possible, shutting her eyes and letting her thoughts swim.  Maybe it was all a terrible dream and when she woke up, she’d be back in the hotel and she could try the entire day again.  She wanted so badly for everything to be another terrible dream.

 

Itara stared down the short driveway, following the pavement up the sidewalk to the small, slightly raised, covered porch, to the pale green door in a white frame, set into a white-paneled suburban house.  A set of burgundy curtains were pinned back in the large window and the back of a TV could be seen from the outside.  The fake garage door seamlessly blended in with the real garages around the quiet neighborhood.  There were newly installed shingles on the roof and a tall wooden fence surrounded the backyard, with the one gate she was too small to open on her own.

The snow had melted and the sun was shining, the neighborhood was quiet and Lynda was nowhere to be seen.  She stared up at the house she’d come to call a home, her eyes filling with tears, as she bolted down the driveway and up to the front door, yelling for RK, letting them know she was home.  She tripped over the raised porch, but refused to slow and stumbled her way through the door, slamming it open and crying out for RK, Kipper, and Metal.

The living room was exactly as she remembered it, the couch in front of the TV, the arm chair against the wall, the table behind the half wall separating the living and dining rooms.  Even she school calendar was still pinned to the wall leading down the hallway.  She looked around, ears perked, listening for any sound of the robots or doll, but continued in when she got no answer.  They must be downstairs.

Barely remembering to shut the front door, she ran in, not bothering with her shoes, as she continued to the ‘garage’ door that led down to the basement lab.  She called out for everyone again, telling them she was home, and heard the computer beeping below.  Smiling, she ran down the stairs, being careful not to trip down them, calling out for RK again.  When she looked up at the bottom of the stairs, she saw the two robots she was looking for and a third presence, but it wasn’t Kipper.

It was Robotnik.

He turned around, grinning at her, saying nothing as he pressed another button on the computer, activating the robots standing near the charging stations.  They stood up straight, their expressions blank as they waited for instructions.  Itara’s heart dropped.

“Bring me the anomaly,” the doctor instructed and the bots turned towards her.  No sign of recognition on their blank, robotic faces.

Horror struck and it was all Itara could do to scramble back up the stairs as the towering robots chased after her.  She cried for Kipper, but got no response.  Upon reaching the top of the stairs a robotized doll flew in from the hallway, taking a swipe at her, the little red gem on its head pale and inactive.  She dove away from it as the other two robots reach the top of the stairs.  She scrambled and tripped her way out the front door again, slamming it shut, but stopped in her tracks as soon as she turned around again.

The neighborhood was gone.

The comfortable warmth of the day had turned to a boiling heat, the cozy suburbs had been reduced to ash and rubble, the inlet of trees around the outer edges were nothing but charred, black ground.  The road was cracked and uneven and the sky was a furious red that stretched as far as she could see.  Everything was gone.  Destroyed.

She turned around, expecting to see the robots at her back again, her face twisted in terror, but only dropped when she did.  Even her house, and the robots with it, were gone.  Flattened.  A chasm of rubble collapsed into the hidden basement, charred and jutting.  Just like the mansion.  Everything consumed by fire.

As she watched, too shocked to move or think or focus, the rubble at the bottom of the chasm shifted.  Subtly at first, she barely noticed, but before long the rubble melted, creating a deep, boiling pool of lava, consuming everything it touched.  She shoved herself to her feet and moved further away as it tore at the walls around the pit, bringing more and more down with it, pushing her further and further away.  But as she watched, backing up, a voice spoke up behind her.

“Useless.”

She knew that voice.  All too well.  Though it had been some time since she heard it quite like that.  Swinging around, falling in the process, tripping over her own feet, she stared up at the crystallized hedgehog with the glowing green eye.  She hadn’t seen him in that form in years, but she knew him.  She could never forget him.  The bright magenta sclera, the furious green eyes, the purple and teal crystalline fur, the mouthless, grey muzzle, the purple fog that followed him everywhere.

He’d gone by Mephiles in that form, but she knew him otherwise.  “Dad…”

The mouthless creature shook his head, narrowing his eyes, “How many times have I told you not to call me that?  You’re an incidental creation of my power, nothing more.  I was wrong to let you keep it.”

Itara cringed, dropping her head, “I… I’m s-sorry…”

“You ought to be.  I let you continue existing, I teach you to use your powers, I give you the ability to travel through _time_ , and you use it to continue repeating the past.  Over and over again, you’ve been caught.”  Itara curled in on herself but remained silent.  “This is why I cut you off.”

Her eyes widened, jerking back up, staring up at him, “wh-what?”

“I knew this would happen again, you let it happen once, after all.  Of course you’d let it happen again.  I knew you’d put us at risk, so I cut you off.  As if I’d ever let my powers be touched by humans again.  This is how we got _here_ in the first place,” he spread his arms out, motioning to the destruction around them, “humans.  Always humans.  I should have never given you your body back.  It was a mistake I don’t intend to make again.”

“I… I…”

“No more of your excused,” he waved her away, looking beyond her, “we’ll handle this ourselves from here on out.  You’ve proven just as useless to me as that fool, Shadow.”

“We?”

Her brows furrowed, the lava that had been bubbling and shifting behind her roared to life, rising out of the pit, revealing a great, green-eyed serpent.  She looked back, screeching in terror at the massive monstrosity, yet even this she recognized.  “Iblis!”  The great monster roared loudly, shaking the ground below, causing Itara’s ears to ring.

“Yes.  Iblis and I will destroy this world once and for all… you and your robots and humans, included.”

Itara shook her head, trying to get the ringing to stop, but looked back and forth between the two of them, terrified and confused.  However, after a moment she looked down, shaking her head again before looking up, glaring at them both, “Th-this is… this is just as much your fault as it is mine!  If you hadn’t cut my powers off, I wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place!”  As soon as the words left her mouth, though, not only did she immediately regret it and threw her hands over her mouth, but Mephiles glared down at her.

“My fault?  You have no one to blame but yourself.  Clearly you can’t handle my power, so return it to me.”

Before she could response, the ever-crumbling ground reached where she sat.  She had no time to move as the pavement caved underneath her, sending her plummeting towards the fiery lava pit.  She grasped for anything within reach, the unbearable heat singing her fur as she fell, Iblis letting out another furious roar above her as she mentally begged and pleaded with something, _anything_ to save her.  But as the boiling rage below her drew closer and closer, all she could do was close her eyes and cry out.

 

Zero stood in front of the Doctor’s console, staring up at the monitors and their various feeds, both outside and inside, thinking over the conversations of the day.  There was something about what the hedgehog had said that felt off to him, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.  He replayed the conversation over a couple times, noting that the mobian had essentially admitted to causing the problems they’d been researching lately.  She’d even admitted to Metal Sonic going rogue to join the mobians.  But something about even that felt off to him.  Perhaps it was because she was so young.  Maybe it was the confusion so blatant on her face.  She knew what he was talking about, regarding the mobians’ movements and the rogue robots, and yet the insinuation that they shouldn’t know about it confused _him_.

He was aware, to a degree, that Robotnik was feeding him half-truths, at best.  Though he couldn’t call them out as blatant lies just yet, he could pick up on the mask the doctor was putting on.  It clicked the strongest during the conversation between the hedgehog and doctor, both of them were putting on an act and yet he was the only on that seemed annoyed by it.  But it was the conversation about the robots that most heavily suggested Robotnik was likely lying, at least about their reason for going rogue.

_I don’t even know!_

What did she mean by that?

He didn’t have much time to consider it further, however, as one of the screens brought up a series of warning and drew him from his thoughts.  Looking up at the blaring red warning, he noted that it was coming from the area the hedgehog was being kept in and reached over to pull up further details.  Overheating?

Switching through the camera feeds, his brows pulled together as the video feed displayed the smoldering room and the sleeping hedgehog.  Or at least, he’d thought she’d fallen asleep.  She remained in the same position, but there was some sort of light source emanating from her, focused around her legs.  Accessing a radio unit to contact the doctor, he warned him of the activity and asked if he should investigate it.  It took a moment for the doctor to respond, as he was down in one of the labs now, but commanded Zero to remain watching the feeds and he’d send another robot to investigate for them.

However, as soon as Zero responded in the affirmative and turned the comm unit back off, the warnings spread further out.  Every room and hallway surrounding the hedgehog’s room, both above and below, was warning of overheating.  The entire room was burning red and the camera was struggling to remain functional in the apparent heat, and yet the hedgehog remained asleep somehow.  Her legs were scalding and liquifying the room around her, yet she barely budged.  Just what sort of power did the child have?  Even as the heat burned her fur, she remained utterly unaware.  If he wasn’t concerned about the state of the carrier if this continued, he would be fascinated.  However, as it was, she was about to cause considerable damage to the carrier they were traversing an ocean on.

He reached for the comms again to inform Robotnik of this, but as soon as he did a horrified scream echoed around the melting room.  When Zero looked up again, the hedgehog had opened her now molten white eyes and the camera feed cut out with the sound of a powerful explosion echoing through the carrier.  A string of errors and warnings spread across the entire monitor, cutting the feeds of every camera, and the aircraft gave a sharp jolt and tilted to the side.  The lower deck was blown out, the comm units when to static, and the carrier’s movements sent the heavy robot halfway across the room.

Red alerts and blaring sirens filled the room as Zero dragged himself back to the console, fighting against the heavy tilt, to turn as many alerts as possible off.  If he could get manual control of the machine, having to turn the monitors off entirely to see out the large window directly, he thought he could at least direct it to just enough to avoid the worst of it.  Luckily, a line of dry ground was just up ahead.  He didn’t know what sort of damage the back half of the machine was in, but maybe he could at least salvage the main computers.  Hopefully the doctor wasn’t within reach of whatever happened and he briefly wondered if the hedgehog girl would be alright, but he would have to worry about them after they landed.

The massive machine wasn’t easy to steer, even without the damage it was huge and bulky and ran mostly on a form of autopilot.  With the damage, it was nearly impossible.  Zero did what he could, finding the manual override and trying to keep the ship as righted as he could until land was underneath them.  He managed to miss the city they were headed for by mere miles, coming to a sliding crash just outside city limits in a small section of forest.  The trees did their best to slow them, though the ship heavily outweighed them, and by the time they finally came to a jerking halt that nearly sent the bot through the window, they’d nearly reached the other side of the small forest.

Zero took a moment to calm down again, taking a deep breath before releasing the controls and switching back to the screens to see what was still functional.  A couple cameras recovered from the initial blast, though the damage they showed told him it was just barely, leading him to switch through as many as possible to see if he could at least locate the doctor.  He tried the comm unit again, as well, but continued to get nothing but static.  He would likely need to do an in-person recon to both find the doctor and hedgehog, and examine the full extent of the damage.

Just what was that child?


	27. Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RK and Metal struggle to track Robotnik but manage to find a way to blow off some much needed steam...

RK sighed heavily as he slowed to a walk, reaching the end of the driveway and trudging up the sidewalk to the front door.  The snow was mostly gone, leaving more slush than ice, but it hardly improved his mood the last couple days.  He’d been hoping work would be a suitable distraction as they waited, but there was only more waiting at work, his job was too quiet.  He usually enjoyed the silence and the time to think, but now it caused a great deal of restlessness.  Metal Sonic’s repairs were complete, and they were ready to go at a moment’s notice, they only needed to wait for that right moment.   They only needed to know where to go.

It was early morning, long before anyone in the neighborhood would be awake, meaning there was no chance Lynda would interrupt his walk home.  The best part of his job was coming home to the dark, quiet street.  Well, mostly dark.  He couldn’t help but notice that the light in their own living room was burning bright on the otherwise jet-black street.  He narrowed his eyes, swinging the front door open and looking around the empty living room.  Both the living room and hallway lights were on, but Metal Sonic was nowhere to be seen.  He called out, but got no answer and huffed in annoyance, shutting the door behind him as he stormed in and downstairs.

_Metal Sonic!_

_What?  I was asleep._

_Then turn the lights off!_

There was silence from the other end as RK stormed down the stairs to the basement lab, finding the offending robot pulling himself out of the charging station, waking his systems back up.  He glanced towards the angry red bot and gave him a confused glare, but RK only responded by rolling an eye.

“If you’re going to come downstairs and sleep, then at least turn the lights off upstairs.  You’re wasting electricity.”

“What does it matter?  It’s not like we can overload the base that easily.”

“That’s not the- oh, forget it.”  RK sighed again and continued to the computer, dropping down into the spinning chair which creaked angrily against the sudden weight, and pulled the maps up; the agitation never leaving his face.  Metal watched him strangely before shaking his head and joining the other bot at the keyboard.

“You’re getting impatient.”  It wasn’t a question. RK only briefly glared over his shoulder and returned to the screen, switching between the map modes to try and pinpoint Robotnik’s location.  Metal rolled his own eyes and crossed his arms, continuing, “I’m sure your tiny hedgehog is _fine_.  Robotnik shouldn’t even know who she is and I doubt she’d _tell_ him.  He certainly shouldn’t know we’d be with her.  Knowing him, he’s likely just got her locked in a cell somewhere until he can decide what to do with her, which he never will because he can never make proper use of what he’s got.”

RK sighed again and leaned back, staring up at the computer screen and its endless blinking possibilities.  They’d tried narrowing down Robotnik’s location via previous bases, hoping to avoid turning the comm unit back on and giving away their own location. But there were so many, and they didn’t know for sure which direction he was headed, so it wasn’t narrowing anything down.  They would either need to wait for Robotnik to make a move or connect to the systems again.  But the longer they waited the antsier RK grew.  It didn’t help that Kipper hadn’t returned since his initial disappearance, either.

Metal watched the other bot, knowing he was mulling, and considered ways to distract him or ease his mind.  There wasn’t much he could do in the way of easing, but perhaps he could at least distract him.  He leaned over and pulled the outside cameras for the house up and studied the quiet neighborhood.  Perhaps that would work.  When RK gave him a questioning stare, he stood back up and motioned to the screen, “It’s empty and quiet, and there’s that small forest area there.  We’re likely to have a fight on our hands, either way we do this, we should do some practice sparring to ready for that.  It’s been some time since either of us were in a proper fight, after all.”

RK looked between the screen and Metal, considering it carefully.  Normally he would deem it far too risky, but with everything that had been happening between the Gods and monsters and Robotnik- a fight, a spar, sounded like a perfect idea.  He nodded and left the computer to continue its scans and motioned for Metal to lead the way.  “Just make sure not to cause too much damage.  No lasers.”  Metal huffed, but reluctantly agreed.  He didn’t need lasers to beat RK in a fight, anyway.  A spar.  Not a full fight.  He was not trying to damage RK… too badly.  They both needed to be in top condition for the coming mission, after all.

The two bots continued outside, glancing around the street to check that no one was awake yet before continuing to the small forest at the end of the street next to their house.  It wasn’t a vast forest. It was hardly even the size of a small park, likely put there for decoration more than anything.  But there was a larger field on the other side of the trees, completely surrounded and isolated, that created a much better fighting ground – or hideout for some of the neighborhood kids.  It separated their section of neighborhood from another similar to it.  Luckily, there would be no children anywhere near it this early in the morning.

Metal led the way through the trees and to the large field, moving towards one side while RK moved to the other.  It stretched out for at least half a mile, a good distance for most, but an easy distance to cover for the two robots.  Luckily, they weren’t there to race, they were there to fight.  They would have to be careful not to damage the trees around them or cause too much noise, but they were otherwise free to battle.

Once in position, they both moved into offensive stances, eyeing one another from across the field, a small smirk touched Metal’s face while RK only narrowed his eye.  A light wind rustled the branches around them, and the deep blue sky stretched out above them.  The calm silence lasted only a short moment as Metal took off, not quite at full speed, but fast enough to cross the distance in seconds, RK shifting his stance to a defensive one in response, planting himself firmly in place and preparing for the lighter, faster bot to reach him.  It was an easy enough move to predict, Metal almost always opened with it, using his momentum to offset the weight difference.   Similarly, RK always responded in kind by using that momentum against the lighter robot by either planting a fist in his mid-section or tossing him into the nearest heavy object.  The first couple minutes of their spars were less an actual battle and more akin to a greeting and confirmation that the fight had begun.  Only after Metal had righted himself and came to a sliding stop several feet into the tree line did they change their tactics.

The smirk that had already settled on Metal’s face reached RK with the familiarity and they readjusted for the coming attacks.

As usual, Metal moved first, taking off in a sprint towards the larger bot, but ran past him and, before RK could fully turn around and readjust, took a sharp turn and barreled into the echidna’s back, sending him toppling over.  Metal bounced back and planted his feet, preparing for the next attack, while RK caught himself and flipped back to his own feet, turning towards the other bot.  By the time he was facing the correct direction again, however, Metal was back within reach, or at least, his foot was, and RK wasted no time grabbing it and sending him crashing to the ground.  Though Metal only curled up and spun off upon touching down to put distance between them again.

RK switched to the offensive as he took off after the spinning blue blot, waiting just long enough for him to uncurl before planting a heavy fist in his side, though avoided using his claws to keep the damage to a minimum.  Despite that, he felt the crunch from the impact and watched with a hint of concern once he landed again as Metal shifted his weight to land on his feet rather than crashing side-first into a tree.  With a graceful flip, he landed feet-first on the trunk of the tree and, much to RK’s relief, darted forward again, seeming otherwise unaffected.  After spending so long trying to repair the damaged, broken blue bot, RK sometimes forgot how strong his body was.  But it gave RK the peace of mind to put more weight behind his punches next time around.

With the reassurance that neither of them broke so easily, the calm spar nearly turned into an all-out battle, either of them only remembering they weren’t supposed to do any damage to the surroundings _after_ one of them went through a tree or dug a crater with their opponent.  By the time the sun crept up over the tree line, the once green field was annihilated, a wasteland of dirt piles and broken tree trunks, and the two bots at the center seemed entirely unaware as they exchanged fists.  Despite the heated battle and the damage, however, a smirk sat on either of their faces as they flipped and spun around one another, each hit landing heavier every time.  They were enjoying the much-needed release.

However, their fun would soon come to an end again.  As Metal Sonic dashed for the heavier bot’s backside again, a small glint of red appeared directly in front of him just before he could land the hit.  He would have ignored it, being more concerned with the battle, if the half-visible, familiar grin hadn’t joined the glow before long.  The sudden appearance threw his trajectory off, causing him to crash into the other bot rather than hit him, sending them both to the ground in a jumbled heap up robotics and confusion.

RK took a moment to register what had happened, shooting Metal a look of disbelief until a shrill laughter echoed around the closed-off area.  Metal, who had been recovering from his own uncertainty, glared up at the materializing doll with every ounce of hatred in him.  This was twice now the doll interrupted his fight and he was getting tired of it.

“Kipper!” RK growled, pulling himself and Metal back to their feet.

“Where have you been, _ghost_?” Metal questioned sharply, reaching out for the doll, his claws swiping clean through the yellow wisp, much to his dismay and the doll’s amusement.

“Oh, you know, here and there,” Kipper cackled, looking between the two, giving them a fake contemplative look, “though, shouldn’t you be looking for the tiny child?  Not out here goofing off?”

“Kipper, unless you’ve come with news about Itara, I don’t want to hear it.  I’m still furious with you,” RK growled, rolling his shoulders and straightening his clothes back up.

“Well, as it happens,” the doll grinned, looking off towards the rising sun, “while you two were playing, _I_ was looking into the matter and, well, this is just hearsay, but I _may_ have heard some whisper of where Robotnik might be.”

“Out with it, you infuriating doll!” Metal growled, growing all the more frustrated with the coy doll.

Kipper looked back and forth between them slyly, seeming to debate whether to answer, but the rage on either robot’s face finally pulled the answer from him.  “Robotnik’s Egg Carrier was seen crashing just outside Station Square, some explosion of some kind nearly blew it in half.  Rumor is it was Sonic… but I happen to know the troublesome trio are recovering from a recent battle at the university in Spagonia.  They were nowhere near Robotnik at the time of the crash.”

“How do you know?”

The ever-present grin spread even further, revealing not one, but several rows of sharp fangs within, “I may or may not have been… _looking in_ on dear little Tails.  He’s just been having so much tech-trouble lately, I thought I’d… _help out_.”

RK rolled his eye while Metal went into consideration about what he’d said.  “Station Square is across the ocean, I may be able to run or at least glide across it, but I’m not sure if you can, RK.”  He turned to the red bot, studying him carefully.

RK gave it a quick moment of thought and shook his head, “My gliding gear’s been damaged for too long, it can’t pick up my weight anymore.  I’m fast enough, but I’m too heavy.  I may know another way to get there, though.  Let’s get back to the lab, I’ll need the map.”  Metal nodded and the three headed out of the field, only briefly glancing at the destruction and hoping to get back into the house before anyone spotted them.

However, luck was never on their side, as not only was the neighborhood awake by now… but Lynda was waiting on their doorstep.  RK sighed heavily, tempted to sneak around back to avoid her, but she spotted them the second they left the tree line and rushed right over.  She looked equal parts apprehensive and concerned and RK only had so many guesses about what was about to come out of her mouth this time.

“RK!  I heard about Itara!”

There was a list he was preparing for, with a variety of answers he was ready to use, but that response hadn’t been on it and left him in a moment of confusion.  Heard what, exactly?

“What?”

The human woman looked frantically back and forth between him and Metal, resting on him and continued, “the kids, they came back from the trip, but I heard Itara didn’t come back with them.”  This time, she addressed her question to Metal, knowing he’d been on the trip, “what happened?”

Metal stared at her, unsure how to respond, unsure how much to tell the humans about the situation.  Luckily, RK answered for him, “it was the attack on the university.  From what I heard, she got lost during it.”

“That… Doctor Robotnik guy showed up during the attack, didn’t he?  Is… will Itara be okay?”

“I’m sure she’s fine.  She knows how to take care of herself.  That said, Me-Sparky and I were just about to head out and go look for her, ourselves.”

“I’ll come with you!  The more people looking for her, the better, right?”

Metal and RK exchanged glances, having to consider the answer.  Obviously, they couldn’t bring Lynda along, they weren’t exactly going to Spagonia, but denying her offer would look suspicious.  However, a thought occurred to RK and he turned back to her, “actually, would you mind doing me a favor?”

“Of course!  Anything!”

“Since no one’s been able to find her and since the rest of her class took off without her, it’s possible she’s finding her way back on her own.  She’s shockingly resourceful on her own sometimes, so there’s a possibility she may come back before we do, it’d be better if there was someone waiting her for her.  You’ve got a fairly sharp eye, and she trusts Simon, so if you wouldn’t mind staying and keeping an eye out for her.  Bring her to your place until we can return?”

Lynda thought about it for a few minutes, mulling over the idea, before finally nodding, “Of course.  I can do that.  Do you maybe have a phone I can contact you by, if she does come home before you?”

“Uh… yeah, actually, here,” it wasn’t exactly a cell phone, but a direct line to his communication system he’d set up for Itara.  Lynda pulled her own phone out and he gave her the number that was set up for it, though she looked at him strangely when it was considerably longer than a normal cell phone number. “It’s an… extension line.  I usually only use it for work, but it can reach me directly if there’s an emergency.”  He just had to hope she didn’t use it to constantly call him now.  Metal gave him a look for giving the number out so easily, but he brushed it off.

RK reassured her again that they’d find Itara and be back before long, finally getting her to go home so they could continue what they were doing.  Once back inside, Metal voiced his concern over giving Lynda the number and RK shook his head.  “It was necessary.  We’ll worry about it later, for now we need to find an aircraft to get us to Station Square.”  Metal rolled his eyes but followed him down to the lab where they went to work finding what they needed.

Once down in the lab, RK wasted no time getting a variety of maps up on screen, getting into contact with whom he needed, and telling Metal to search through the list of abandoned bases he’d already put together for useable aircrafts.  It wasn’t uncommon for Robotnik to leave creations behind when he moved on to the next plan, and just like the lab they were in, several others still had somewhat functioning robotics and labs.  There was a hidden utility even in this lab, but it wasn’t quite what they were looking for now.  Besides, activating it would likely destroy the house above them and that was best avoided.

As they worked, however, the computer alerted them to a presence near the door and RK sighed in annoyance, expecting it to be Lynda again -or worse, Susan.  However, when the camera feed came up it was neither of them.  In fact, it was none of the adults, but Simon and a grey-skinned scorpion mobian rolling a suitcase behind her.  Both looked equally downtrodden as Simon reached up to ring the doorbell, turning to the mobian girl to talk to her, though they had the audio feed muted.

When Metal noticed that RK had stopped, he looked up, as well, and hummed curiously.  “It’s that pseudo-scorpion Itara hates so much.”

“Sceira?”

“Yeah, she ended up in our hotel room with us during the trip.  Little fun-ruiner, that one.”

RK eyed the other bot suspiciously, but got up and moved to the stairs, “I’ll go see what they want, you stay here and keep looking into those bases.”  Metal waved him up with a dismissive ‘sure’ and RK continued up the stairs, reaching the front door before long.  When he opened it, Simon jumped, almost as if he hadn’t expected the door to open, but the scorpion girl just stared off.  If he remembered correctly, Itara said she was blind, didn’t she?

“AH!  H-hello, RK, uh,” Simon stammered, his expressions going between concerned and confused and panicked within seconds of each other.  “S-Sorry to bother you, my mom said you were leaving soon to look for Itara but… uh… Sceira came by and, well-”

“Excuse me, you’re Itara’s guardian, correct?” Sceira interrupted, her eyes never shifting, though the pincers at the end of her pigtails did so nervously.  She seemed shaken, but trying her best to keep her voice from showing it.

“Yes, I am,” RK responded, slowly, curious what they wanted and anxious to get back to work.

“I’m sorry to bother you but,” the girl continued, pulling the suitcase around in front of her and holding the handle out, “I was in Itara’s group and hotel room, and she… I…”  A frown touched her face as she took a moment to correct it again, “I wanted to… at least bring her stuff back.  I… I’m sorry.  It’s because of me,” RK’s eyebrow raised at this, “when the monsters attacked, we got separated from everyone.  I got scared, I didn’t know what was going on, I panicked, but… Itara… Itara helped me back to the group, she brought me back to one of the teachers but…”  Tears were welling in the clouded gray eyes as she stammered, “but then she took off and… I couldn’t stop her.  She saved me and I let her run off and now she’s lost and I’m so sorry!”

Whatever calm the scorpion girl managed to keep ahold of on the way over finally broke as she burst into a fit of tears, causing Simon to jump and attempt to cheer her back up, though he hardly knew what to say.  He stumbled over vague reassurances and pat the girl’s back, but nothing he was doing seemed to help.  RK stood, studying them, but shook his head after a moment and reached out to take the bag.

“Thank you for bringing this back,” he began, choosing his words carefully, “and you really shouldn’t blame yourself for Itara taking off, it’s not your fault.  When Itara gets something her head it’s impossible to get it back out. There was nothing you _could_ have done to stop her, trust me on this.”  In a specific way he could relate: having tried to stop Itara from doing something stupid that put her in danger plenty before.  One time, in particular, he regretted how little he could do about it.  He wouldn’t let the same happen again, though.  The reassurance seemed to calm the girl down a bit, at least enough to turn the cries into sniffles.  “And as Simon mentioned, Sparky and I are preparing to take off to go find her, so don’t worry about it.  We’ll bring her home.”

Sceira nodded, but Simon looked up at the taller echidna now, “Are you really gonna be able to find her?”

“Sure.  We already have an idea of where she headed off to.  We just need to get a couple things in order before we take off.”

“That’s good, I’m glad.  I’d be… upset if anything happened to her.”

RK studied the two carefully, taking the situation into consideration.  So much had changed since the reset and when they moved for all three of them.  Some of it had been difficult to deal with, such as the family Itara had lost, but a lot of it had changed for the better as well.  He was glad.  And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Robotnik ruin it now.  With a final nod, he moved the suitcase further inside the door and leaned it against the wall, and turned back to the children, “I’m sure she’ll be just fine and she will absolutely be home soon.”

A smile touched both children’s faces as Simon pat Sceira on the back again, “See?  What’d I tell ya?  She’ll be home before long.  Why don’t you come over and play some games with me in the meantime?”  Sceira’s face twisted into confusion for a moment, but she didn’t have much time to respond before Simon was pulling her back down the sidewalk to his house, waving back at RK, “tell Itara we’ll be waiting for her when you find her, kay?!”

RK gave a small wave and a nod, watching with amusement as the human kid completely shifted gears and dragged the confused scorpion girl off in much the same way he’d done with Itara before.  As annoying as Lynda always was, RK was at least grateful for Simon’s presence.  The kid would be alright, he was sure.  With a light shake of his head, he closed the door and looked down at the suitcase.  Itara would be glad to see that once she got home, at least.  He picked it up and moved it to her bedroom, setting it down on the bed, before returning to the lab to continue his work.

Metal glanced back at him when he returned, then turned to the screen again, opening a file on one of the bases from the list, “I think I may have found something with potential.”

“Good.  We need to move fast, they’ll be way ahead of us.”

“Luckily, fast is what I do best,” Metal responded, pulling up the information on the base.  “And apparently mother-henning is what you do best.  I never would have guessed.”  RK glared, but said nothing, focusing instead on the computer screen.  They had work to do and he wasn’t going to let Metal _or_ Kipper distract him from it with their mockery.


	28. Wavering Loyalty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zero questions the Doctor's motives and seeks a second opinion... but an interruption cuts the answer short.

Zero stared down at the stasis capsule and scanned the nearby computer to check the life signs of the tiny hedgehog inside to make sure she was at least alive.  The glow that had surrounded her had dimmed considerably, as the Doctor hypothesized it would, but even the stasis tube was having a hard time keeping the temperature down enough not to melt the wires connected to the strange anomaly.  She’d been badly injured during the crash, as expected, but oddly enough only sustained minor burns from the explosion itself.  Most of her injuries came from being tossed around the metal room during the landing.  The Doctor thought it best to keep her under closer observation, but also at a safe distance to avoid putting themselves in further danger in case of another episode.  Between the danger she posed and the injuries she sustained, they decided it best to put her under until further decisions could be made.

Not even Dr. Robotnik had seen powers or abilities quite like hers and seemed both intrigued and pressed to find a way to deal with it.  There was a distinctly sinister tone to his voice while theorizing that Zero wasn’t overly fond of.  He’d been unsure of the Doctor since his initial reawakening, but he’d grown ever more suspicious with each incident. The child’s reaction to him had been the largest source.  However, he wouldn’t defect until he had properly evaluated the situation.  He didn’t want to put himself at risk of retaliation and possibly lose his only way home and, in the meantime, there were more pressing issues.  The repair of the ship and the retrieval of the emeralds the Doctor lost in the crash were the highest priority.

He checked the computer once more to confirm that it was still capable of containing the hedgehog’s power and turned back towards the door to leave the lab.  Luckily, Robotnik had an old base somewhat near the crash site and they were able to move into and reactivate, which would easily cut the repair time of the ship in half.  Zero wasn’t all that sure why the Doctor would have another base so far from his main operating base or why there were so many deactivated robots left in it, but when he questioned Robotnik about it he didn’t get much in the way of an answer.  Instead, Robotnik put him in charge of watching over the hedgehog and seeing to the repairs of the ship.  He thought his abilities were better suited to tracking down the missing emeralds, but Robotnik assured him the bots that were sent after them would be plenty enough.  However, with the news of Sonic being on the move again, Zero had his doubts.  He’d seen the destruction the blue hedgehog could cause and didn’t think the basic robots sent out would be nearly enough to handle him should they cross his path.

But he would focus on the task at hand and, should anything happen, he could easily go after them later himself.  He hadn’t had an opportunity to face this Sonic yet and he looked forward to it.  Though there was another mobian -no, he was likely a robot- that Zero looked forward to facing even more.  A red echidna that was likely to come to him, if the Doctor was to be believed.  _If_ the Doctor was correct about the rogue robots, Zero was certainly better off remaining near the lab, after all.

After exiting the lab containing the hedgehog girl, Zero moved down several twisting hallways until he reached a large hanger door and pressed the code into the nearby panel and entering the vast, open area behind it.  The ruined carrier had been pulled here by many of the reactivated robots, which were quickly set to work repairing it.  Similar to a degree to the reploids back home, many of these robots had minimal AIs, built for a specific purpose and followed command without question.  It seemed, despite having the ability to create advanced AI, Robotnik had only put it to its full use twice: One of which he’d believed to be destroyed long ago, and the other had gone rogue relatively recently.

Zero crossed several yards to the destroyed carrier to study the progress on its repair, met before long by one of the bulkier robots amongst the group.  The larger bot gave him a precise update: damage reports, needed materials, and an estimate on time to completion, then returned to its position at a nearby console to return to its work supervising the others.  The carrier was a few days away from being ready for departure, but Zero expected as much from his own initial analysis.  Though, admittedly, he wasn’t sure what Robotnik wanted him doing regarding the carrier.  There seemed to be plenty of bots for the manual work and there was the larger bot already overseeing everything and keeping a record of the progress.  Zero wasn’t sure where he was needed with the process.

Perhaps he should check in with Robotnik, himself, for now.  The child was safe in the stasis tube, repairs were going as they should, and there were no signs of outside interruption thus far.  There were, however, signs of activity in the city nearby and Zero suspected it had something to do with their initial reason for coming and wanted to investigate the matter.  If it would expedite his going home, his time was better spent in the city than standing around at the base.

Zero reached the main console room and entered the large double doors (having been given access to each area upon arrival, as with the last base), then walked over to the large chair the Doctor draped over.  As usual, he was staring up at multiple screens across a long display that wrapped halfway around the room but was only observing for the time being.  He hardly even turned when Zero approached but acknowledged his presence once he did.

“How go repairs?”

“As expected, it’ll be a few days still before it’s ready to fly again.”

“And the hedgehog?”

“Inactive, though even the stasis tube is struggling to keep her temperature normalized.”  Robotnik gave a grunt of a response and silence fell once more, prompting Zero to speak up again, “there’s been considerable activity in the nearby city.  It may be related to the monster you mentioned.  I believe it’d be best for me to look into it while we wait.”

Robotnik remained silent, as if mulling it over, before shaking his head and turning the chair around to face him.  “No, it’s best if you stay here.  This base is outdated.  I’ve been able to activate most of its defense systems, but should something come directly for us, you’re our best line of defense.  Sonic is on the move, if he shows up, I’d rather you be here to deal with him.”

Zero struggled to keep the displeasure off his face; he was getting tired of waiting around all the time.  He’d only agreed to assist the Doctor under the promise that he could get him back home, that he was the only one with the knowledge and technology to do that.  But the constant waiting and defensive maneuvers were directly impeding on that progress.  He wasn’t here as Robotnik’s personal bodyguard!  He was here incidentally and wanted nothing to do with the raging mobian-human war.  It wasn’t his place to intercede, he only wanted to return home.  The only reason he offered to help as much as he had was because he thought it was what X would have done.  But Robotnik seemed less trustworthy every moment and his patience was growing thin.

Perhaps it was time to get a second opinion, after all.

“I’m going to look in on the child again, then,” Zero explained, turning on his heel to leave.

“Good, she may be the most useful tool we’ve found yet, especially with the loss of the Chaos Emeralds.  If we can get that under control…”  Zero didn’t hear the rest of the sentence as the sliding doors slammed shut behind him, cutting the thought off.  _Tool_.  He didn’t much care for that terminology.  She wasn’t one of his robots, she was an organic child, dangerous as she may be.  Her powers were a curiosity, for sure, and he was wary about giving her another opportunity to use them against them, but he had grown more wary of the Doctor recently.  Perhaps the child’s appearance was his true opportunity in the strange world.  She at least seemed more willing to drop the façade than Robotnik.

He entered and locked the door upon reaching the lab, not wanting to be interrupted or allow her possible escape, and pressed in the code to slow the tranquilizers as he crossed over to the console.  He kept the temperature control on, and the tube closed, in hopes to minimize the damage as much as possible in case she responded violently.  Once her vital signs picked up again, he moved beside the tube, standing over it and watching carefully, waiting for signs of a response, mostly watching the glow around her legs to watch for a reaction.  Luckily, it remained the same even as the small girl slowly awakened.

She was drowsy at first, as expected, but the more aware of her surroundings she became, the more she panicked, causing the crystals -which had nearly vanished by this point- and the glow to spark up again.  She stared up at him, wide eyed and terrified, her eyes darting wildly around her, and it occurred to Zero that waking up behind glass may cause more panic than he expected.  He reached over to open the tube glass, and watched the girl immediately attempt to scramble away the second it did.  Not wanting her to move any further than necessary, he reached over and pushed her back down, holding her still as he explained the situation.

“Calm down, you’re in no danger so long as you don’t try to attack,” he explained flatly, her wild purple and green eyes darted to him as she struggled against his grip.  She eventually realized that she was going nowhere, however, and stopped struggling, though kept her watering eyes glued to him. He took that as a sign she was listening and continued, “Make no mistake, the second you show signs of aggression, I’ll put you back under.  You caused enough damage, to the ship and yourself, in the first blast, I’d rather avoid a repeat.”  Confusion and pain spread across her face and almost as if the mention of her injuries was what brought them to her attention, not her thrashing around.

After a moment of silence, she looked up at him again, considerably calmer but still clearly in pain and confused, and questioned, “What… blast?”

He had wondered if she had even been aware of the situation, herself, but now he supposed he had his answer.   He watched her cautiously then threatened her once again should she start to panic, but removed his hand from her and sat in a nearby chair once she promised to keep still.  He had a feeling it would be a long chat.  “During the fly over, after you fell asleep, you suddenly began to emit a substantial amount of heat. I’m guessing the source of which was from your legs,” he motioned towards the still somewhat glowing limbs and she looked down to study them.  Her eyes widened in shock, but then dropped and moved to the side.  So she knew the cause of it, at least.

“You nearly melted the room you were in until it exploded, taking out half the carrier and causing a crash.  Strangely enough, most of your injuries were sustained during the crash, rather than the heat.  After landing and moving to a functional nearby base, we decided it safest, for both you and us, to put you in a temperature-controlled stasis.”

Itara’s brows furrowed, considering what he was saying as she was still trying to shake the grogginess from her head.  She could barely remember the contents of her dream anymore, only that it had been upsetting, but the idea that she caused an explosion during her sleep…

She shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it anymore.  Instead, she looked up at Zero again, “So… w-why… wake me up?”

“For the same reason I brought you along in the first place; you have answers I want.  That said, the Doctor isn’t aware I’ve woken you up so your cooperation would benefit us both this time around.”  Itara mutedly stared at him in further confusion, so he continued, “As I mentioned before, I’m not from your world-- I have no interest in your world. I’m here entirely on accident, I’m sure, and my only interest is returning home.  I was badly damaged when I first arrived here and Robotnik repaired me and offered to help get me home.  However, there have been several stalls and impediments in that process and, quite frankly, I’m growing tired of them.

“This latest _incident_ , for example, is setting us back considerably and the Doctor seems more concerned with protecting his base than looking into the activity here.”  He eyed the hedgehog sharply to make sure his point got across, “And seeing as you’re the cause of that, you ought to help make up the difference.  You and Robotnik both know more than you’re letting on and I want answers _now_.  Tell me what you know, or I’ll take it from you by force.”

Itara stared up at him, equally confused and terrified, to see no sign of empty threat in his furious blue eyes.  She looked away and gave it a moment of thought, trying to calm herself down, still a bit dizzy from the stasis, but gave her head a light shake.  “Okay… okay,” she turned back, frowning, “y-you’re right.  I know a… a lot, a lot more than most, really.  I can’t explain everything, though, there are… not because… not just because there’s a lot even I don’t know, but…”  She shut her eyes and curled up a little again, “but because there are… things out there, far more terrifying than even you or Robotnik.”

Zero watched her carefully, taking note of the stutter and wondering if it was because of the situation or if it was consistent.  Both times he’d crossed her path, she’d been in danger, so it was hard to tell.  But at least she agreed to answer his questions.  Finally.  “Fine, then let’s start simple.  Who _are_ you?  And I don’t want your name.  You’re no mere organic, the hole in our ship explained that well enough, I want what you really are.”  She looked up at him, apprehension filling every detail of her face, he added, “I will keep it from Robotnik, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Her face twisted slightly as she considered it, though he understood to a degree.  If she truly was something other than a normal mobian, she had no reason to trust him with that information.  She had no reason to trust he wouldn’t immediately tell Robotnik, either, but he didn’t have time to assure her otherwise.  Finally, she sighed, and he wondered if she would continue playing coy.

“I’m… You really can’t tell Robotnik any of this, he _can’t_ know, but… you’re right, I’m not… normal.  I never have been.  I was, in fact, created… by Robotnik, technically, or rather, by one of his robots, in a past no one remembers.  I have powers no one else does, but I…”  She considered keeping the fact that she couldn’t control them from him, but knew that was pointless by now, “As you guessed, I can’t control them.  Robotnik tried to harness them once and brought about the end of the world in the process, the reason he doesn’t know now is because… the timeline was reset.  No one remembers but me.  Given the opportunity, he’d likely try it again, which is why he can’t know.  He _can’t_ be trusted.”

Zero studied her expression, searching for the lie or the coverup, but once he was sure she was telling the truth, or at least that she believed she was telling the truth, he considered the answer.  “Timelines… are you telling me you have some sort of _time_ power, in addition to… this?”  He waved, rather incredulous, towards the various crystals and glowing.  She nodded, slowly, cautiously, her eyes remaining locked to her burning legs.  “Crystals, heat, _and_ time powers?  Just what _are_ you?”

The question was so accusatory and bewildering, Itara barely managed to contain her wince.  “T-to be fair… the heat is… _new_ … even to me.”  She had a feeling she knew where it was coming from, but she couldn’t be sure.  She looked up and explained, “but yes, I… I used to be able to travel through time.  But I haven’t had access to my powers for… awhile.  Not since the reset. If I had access to them, you never would have captured me.  I used to know the optimal path to success, I used to know what to do to get what I wanted, but I no longer do.  This is all I can do anymore,” she waved towards the crystals before dropping her arm heavily again, the distraught written clearly across her face.  She shook her head, going silent again and looking away from him, “That’s all I can tell you about that, though.  My powers are tied to something else, something far scarier than you, so that’s all I can tell you.”

Zero remained silent, considering everything.  Scarier things than him, huh?  If she wasn’t lying about her powers bringing about the end of the world, perhaps she was best left in stasis, after all.  Then again, there were other potentially world-shattering powers acting up lately as well that seemed far less cooperative than the tiny, frustrated child.  “What do you know of Chaos and the emeralds, then?”

Itara glanced back up at him, curious, but looked down to respond, “Chaos… he’s one of the three Gods that watch over the world, specifically he’s a Water God and the Guardian of the Chao and the emeralds.  We’re… near Station Square, right?”

“Correct.”

“There’s an island near here called Angel Island where Chaos resides with the Guardian of the Master Emerald.  He destroyed this city once before, about twenty years ago, you can ask _Robotnik_ who caused _that_.”   She shook her head and looked up again, watching him from the corner of her eye.  There had to be a reason Robotnik was headed for Station Square again.  Supposedly, he’d learned his lesson about upsetting Chaos, but if Zero was asking now… “Why?”

“These gems, the Chaos Emeralds, what power do they hold?”

“Enough that Robotnik and Sonic are basically always in a battle to see who can keep hold of them the longest.  Even the other Gods, Gaia and Solaris, have sought their use before, though Chaos has the most control over them.  _Why_?”

“We have been on the hunt for these Chaos Emeralds since I arrived, Robotnik assures me they’re the key to getting me home, but they’ve been difficult to procure.  We had three, before the crash, but they’ve since gone missing and we can no longer locate them, or any of the others, for that matter.  Is it possible this is because of Chaos?”

Itara shook her head, “If it is… then we need to vacate the area _immediately_.”

“Why?”

“Because if Chaos is awake and has the emeralds, he-.”

The sudden blare of a base-wide warning cut her off as even the lab flashed with a bright red light and a warning displayed on the nearby computer: Intruder Alert.  A monotonous robotic voice soon accompanied the warning, stating ‘Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert, Employ Defensive Maneuvers Immediately’, as Robotnik sounded on Zero’s comm unit.

“Zero!  Zero, where are you?!  There are intruders on the main deck!”  He sounded frantic, yet a hint of zeal hid behind his panic.

Zero looked between the hedgehog and the communication device built into his arm, pulling it up and responding, “In the lab with the mobian, I’m on my way.  What section?”

“Hurry up!  They’re in Sector B but moving quickly inwards!”  As Zero stood, Robotnik added, almost as a after-thought, “You may get that fight you’ve been looking forward to.”  Both Zero and Itara stared at the speaker, Zero remaining straight-faced while Itara watched in confusion.

“Right.  I’ll be there quickly.”  He shut the speaker off again and turned to the hedgehog, studying her before narrowing his eyes, “do _not_ move.”

Itara jerked slightly, but sighed and motioned towards her legs, “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.  What did he mean, though?  What fight?”  Zero only shook his head and ensured she wasn’t lying about moving before heading out the door to meet the intruders.  Admittedly, the hedgehog’s legs weren’t her only problem and he deemed it impossible for her to move on her own, but had locked the door to the lab again just in case.  She wasn’t supposed to be awake in the first place but he didn’t have time to worry about putting her back under with the sounds of destruction and chaos already echoing down the hall towards him.  Whatever was making its way through the base, it wasn’t doing so quietly.  Though, with the final comment from Robotnik, he had an idea of who -or what- it may be.

He was joined by Robotnik along the way, hovering in the smaller craft he’d taken to moving around in again, as they raced towards the apparent intruder making bolts of the defense system.  As soon as they reached the open deck and Zero had only barely caught a glimpse of red moving on the other end, the entire base let off a horrifying _zap, crackle, snap_ and with a final, low _bwom_ , everything went dark and Robotnik was screaming in frustration.  Zero, however, wasted no time pulling his sword from his shoulder and taking a defensive stance.  He wouldn’t pull the blade out just yet, as the glow would give his position away all too easily, but as he heard the heavy _thud_ land nearby, he released the blade and swung it sharply behind him.

The glowing blue blade whipped through the empty air and Zero readjusted his stance to deal with the oncoming threat.  However, while he had expected a sturdy, direct attack, he hadn’t expected the sudden laser shot through the darkness which knocked him back several feet.  He righted himself quickly enough, landing and preparing for another attack while Robotnik continued to panic in the distance.  The next attack, at least, came exactly as he expected as his sword melted through the hook glinting around it, causing the owner to quickly distance himself as the base clicked and zapped again, attempting to restart itself only to be shorted again in the process.

“This useless, dilapidated hunk of junk!  Work!”

Robotnik continued yelling and fumbling about, but Zero had long since tuned him out to focus on the battle.  If he had to guess, there was more than one opponent, one he had studied before, one he potentially hadn’t.  He gave his position away with his sword, but due to the delay in further attack he assumed they were keeping their distance thanks _to_ said weapon.  Perhaps they hadn’t expected it to cut so cleanly.  The thought amused him but he wanted the fight, and as soon as the Doctor got the base functioning again, he would need to stick to the plan they’d already set out for these specific _guests_.

The whir of the laser echoed out again and he had all of a second to move out of its way, roll to the side and purposely drop his sword in the process to draw the opponents near.   He waited only long enough for the claws behind him to be beyond retracting and grabbed the arm they were attached to which flipped the heavy bot overhead, slamming him beside him with a violent thud which echoed around the open area.  But as soon as one bot hit the ground, a sharp, extended claw surrounded in snapping blue electricity cut through the air at a remarkable speed, forcing him further away from the other bot _and_ his sword.  At least it confirmed his theory about there being two opponents.

Two black outlines stood against the glow of his sword. A long, thin blue arm lit up, glowing with blue sparks, which revealed half of one aggressor as glowing red and green eyes burned through the darkness between them.  They were only a handful of feet away and Zero was sure of who they were now.  It also meant he knew why they were there, as well.

Unfortunately for all involved, with a cry of relief from Robotnik, the base’s lights flickered back on, desperate to go back out again, then stabilized and revealed the two rogue robots.  But Zero already knew who they were and what needed to be done-- the fact that they’d shown up together only made his job easier.  Moving back into a fighting stance, he eyed them with a slight grin. The two bots responded in kind, one noticeably more amused than the other.  However, he couldn’t meet them whole-heartedly in the fight, as he wanted to, as their battle in the dark was the most they would get for the time being.

A string of curses came from the Doctor’s mouth in some far-off corner of the room, but none of the bots paid it any mind as they met fists once more.  However, what the two had realized just a moment too late was that they were led to a specific spot and, before they knew it, a burning green power grid snapped up around them, stopped any further attack.  Sparks flew inside as the rogue badniks attempted to escape, but they got nowhere as Zero walked back over to retrieve his sword.  Robotnik finally made his way over, as well, looked over the furious bots, and clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“Metal Sonic… and Robot Knuckles, even… so this is how I finally find you again.”  Metal and RK exchanged looks, glaring back at Robotnik without a word.  The Doctor looked to RK, specifically, Robotnik continued, glaring back at the helpless traitors, “I thought you were destroyed years ago.  To think you joined the mobians…,” he shook his head.  “But more importantly…,” he slammed his hands on the console in front of him, tilting the entire circular hovercraft as he leaned forward, scowling furiously, and yelled, “what did you do with my comb?!”


	29. Deals Made

Itara looked around the pitch-black lab when she heard the door slide open due to the power outage, but wondered if she should even try to leave.  What she’d told Zero hadn’t been a lie: Her legs were too badly injured to move on her own and (since she had the time to focus on it) the rest of her body didn’t feel much better.  She honestly didn’t think she could go anywhere on her own, even if she wanted to.  The door was sitting wide open, the area was drowned in darkness, and Zero and Robotnik were both distracted by whatever intruder had showed up.  If ever there was a moment for an escape, this was it… and yet, she still couldn’t.

She scowled down at her still-glowing legs and the burns smoldering around them, only just then realizing the stasis tube had been lowering her temperature to deal with them; now that it was off, she could feel the prickle of the burn under her fur.  She’d been furious enough at the crystals before, a power she was familiar with and knew she could control once before.  This new power- this new _curse_ \- she knew nothing about.  It had only activated twice now and both times, _both times_ , it had resulted in disaster.  She’d _hurt_ Mira and Kelly before and she nearly killed herself this time.  She wanted nothing to do with these manifested flames.  She barely wanted anything to do with the crystals anymore and the flames could get _dowsed_ for all she cared.

As the gravity of such a thought sunk in she took a moment to calm down and looked around the room, her eyes adjusting to the dark easily enough.  If ever there was a time to escape, this was it.  As much pain as it would likely cause her, she couldn’t waste the opportunity.  She had to move.

With a final, deep breath in, she forced her legs over the edge of the tube.  The glass crackled threateningly when she moved over it, but she pushed forward.  The burns were the least of her worries, she realized, as every inch of her body not covered in protective crystals cried out at the movement.  But it wasn’t until she put pressure on her arms in an attempt to push herself up, as one of them collapsed and caused a stabbing pain, that the break made itself distinctly apparent.  She yelped in a combination of shock and pain and quickly shifted her position to take the pressure off the broken arm, readjusting to wrap the other around it.  It hadn’t been wrapped up or splinted in anyway so she hadn’t expected it to be quite so bad -and she suspected the stasis tube might have kept the worst of the pain minimized- but between everything shutting down and her movements, _every_ injury she’d sustained in the crash came screaming to her attention.

Not that she was a stranger to pain.  She’d dealt with worse, which was likely why she was still trying to shift her way out of the stasis tube, but having nothing to wrap it with made movement noticeably more difficult.  When she finally managed to thump her way to the floor, the jolt caused another sharp stabbing in her throbbing arm and she nearly tore through her bottom lip to keep quiet.  Deep breath in and release.  She had to find some form of support for her arm if she was going to get anywhere.  After a quick glance around only to not find anything of use in the lab, she looked down at her charred and torn uniform.  She’d lost her shoes at some point, the flames surrounding her legs burnt her socks away long ago and even the bottom of her skirt was bordered by a jet-black crispness.  But her ribbon was still somehow intact.

She reached up with her good arm, pulled the necktie out from its hoops, tied the ends as best she could with one hand and her teeth, then slipped it over her head and maneuvered her broken arm into it.  It was short, far shorter than was needed, but it was the best she could do at the time.  It would have to work.  She just needed something to keep her arm from constantly moving as she pushed herself back up to her feet.  Okay.  Progress.  She still had a way to go, considering she didn’t even know where _to_ go, but progress was progress.  Her legs burned and the pressure from standing felt like thousands of needles were prickling all up and down them, but she could deal with that.

She hobbled forward from the tube behind her that she had been using as a support and nearly tumbled right back to the ground.  If the chair Zero was sitting in hadn’t been in front of her, all her efforts to keep her arm from moving would have been wasted when she slammed it into the floor.  It rolled and nearly tripped her when she grabbed for it but she managed to keep herself on her feet.  Somehow.  A heavy sigh filled the quiet room as she pep-talked herself back into standing up straight again, keeping hold of the chair in the meantime.

As she mentally talked herself back to her feet, however, a brief glow of red flashed in the distance before disappearing again.  Itara only barely caught it, being more distracted with talking herself down and had just assumed it to be one of Robontik’s bots roaming around to get the lights back on.  If anything, it prompted her to get moving again, knowing he would likely turn the power on soon and she needed to at least be out that door before he did.  However, as soon as she straightened up and moved to take as step away from the chair, the red glow appeared again, this time much closer and accompanied by bright, red and black swirling eyes filling her view.

A shriek echoed around the hall, followed by a shrill laughter, and the thud of the hedgehog falling back again, the chair toppling with her.  It took Itara several minutes to return to her senses, but as soon as she did, fury filled the gaze locked on the doll, “KIPPER!”

The doll materialized, his laughter continuing to fill the darkness, sending a shiver up even Itara’s spine, but he calmed before long and grinned down, “That never gets old.  Look at you, you’re in _awful_ shape, little hedgie.  What’d ya do to yourself this time?”

Itara took a moment to calm her breathing but shook her head.  As mad as she wanted to be at Kipper for scaring her, more than anything she was just relieved to see him again.  Instead of yelling, like the doll expected, she reached up and wrapped him up in her good arm, hugging him tightly, “Kipper… I’m so happy to see you.”

“…Yeah, yeah, don’t get all sappy,” the doll winced, though didn’t bother to move away, as usual.  He’d gotten used to her clinging long ago.

“We don’t have time for this, though,” she frowned, releasing him again, “I need your help.  There’s no telling how soon the power will come back on, I need to get out of here before it does.”  Kipper looked the disheveled, broken hedgehog over with no shortage of skepticism, prompting her to continue, “Can you still-?”  However, before she could even finish the sentence, the base zapped and hummed, causing the hedgehog’s eyes to widen.  With a great clamor of noise, the base’s power zapped back to life, machines beeping, lights humming, doors slamming shut again.  Unfortunately, that included the door leading to Itara’s escape, dropping her head as she sighed heavily..

“You were saying?”

Itara shook her head, letting her eyes adjust to the too-well-lit room before looking up again, considerably more downtrodden than she had been a moment ago.  However, the doll’s grin never changed as he floated casually around the room, ‘examining’ the machinery and stopping at the computer’s console.  Itara watched him out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing.

“You know, this is a decent-sized base,” the doll grinned, resting on the computer desk across the room, little padded ‘hands’ pressing against the keyboard as he leaned back.  “Be a shame if Mama Bear got caught before he could find the right room.”

Itara’s flattened ears perked, whipping back to life as her eyes widened in shock again, “R-RK is here?!”

“Might be.”

“So… the intruder was…”

“That other robot sure looked like quite the foe, hope the two of them can handle him _and_ Robotnik.”

“…Metal… too?”

Kipper said nothing more as Itara went into thought, furrowing her brows before looking up at the computer he was sitting on.  It was still in the reboot process but was almost started up again.  With a slight nod to herself, she pushed herself back to her feet, using the toppled chair and pulling it up, as well.  She hobbled herself and the chair back to the desk, climbed up as quickly as she could while avoiding melting the chair and pulled the keyboard over, shooing Kipper off it.  “If RK and Metal are here, then it’s likely Metal was the one to cause the power outage.  But that means his systems will be vulnerable for a period afterwards, especially shorting a base this size.  He won’t be able to do it twice.”

Once the computer was started up, she pulled the base systems up, although she had to clear through a number of warnings first, but got access to the base layout and the camera feeds before long.  Luckily, she’d overheard Robotnik telling Zero where they were so she had no problem narrowing the search down, finding the hanger the four had met on easily enough.  But she didn’t like what she saw as soon as she did.  Robotnik and Zero were standing outside a large power cube, Robotnik yelling angrily about something or another while Zero stood in silence, studying the two figures inside.  She pulled the camera up full screen and turned the audio on, catching the tail-end of the apparent rant.

“…But I suppose I’ll find out soon enough… when I access your memory files and _wipe them again_.”

“Tch.  All this over a stupid comb,” Metal laughed harshly, though there was no real humor behind it.

“This goes beyond the comb, Metal Sonic!  You two have hidden from me long enough!  I ought to just decommission _both_ of you, rebuild you from the ground up with stronger loyalty chips to make sure we don’t have a repeat.”

Itara gave small whimper, turning the sound back off again and pulling the base’s layout up again.  “Kipper, we have to help.  If we can get to the main power grid, I think I can shut it down completely.  But I’m going to need your help getting there.”  She looked up at the doll floating idly beside her, the look of disinterest blatant on his face.

“And why should I?”

“Kipper, _please_.  We can’t let Robotnik capture them again.  You can still possess my body, right?  I can’t get anywhere on my own, but you can get us there, can’t you?  I’ll give you control if you get me to the main power control.”

The doll glanced over, studying her blankly, before grinning, “And what’s in it for me?”

“Kipper, we don’t have time for this…”

“You’re right, _you_ don’t have time, but I’m not helping unless I get something out of it.  So, if you wanna save your Mama Bear, you better come up with one _real good reason_ for me to use up _so_ much energy.  There aren’t exactly a lot of people dying this time around, after all, and unlike you Demi-Gods, my power gets low.”

Her brows furrowed, frustrated by the delay and trying to come up with something to offer him.  The threat of Robotnik knowing about his existence, as well as hers, through the robots’ memories was easy enough for him to ignore, he could vanish and leave.  Robotnik likely wouldn’t waste time tracking him with everything going on at the moment.  The only thing she knew the doll was after was more power.  Something she… technically had plenty of.

Sighing, she eyed him sharply, “What if I gave you half of mine?”  The disinterested doll turned to fully face her, the wide, fanged grin spreading far across his face.  “It’s… not like I can even use mine effectively, anyway.  If you get me down to the power core… I’ll… give you half my power.”  Her expression went flat as she added, “it’s what you’ve been after the entire time, anyway, isn’t it?”

The look of amusement briefly dropped from the doll’s face before quickly returning to its usual calm grin, “You knew.”

“Of course I knew,” she sighed, turning back to the computer to pull up the feeds for the route they would need to take to reach the power core, “You just couldn’t without me knowing, and potentially upsetting Solaris was too big a risk, right?  You think there aren’t timelines out there where you tried, anyway?”  She turned back with a dead stare closely resembling the mouthless creature of a time long forgotten, “It goes exactly how you fear, by the way.”  Her expression lightened ever so slightly as she pointed to the map, “Get me here, and you can take half, no repercussions.  Unless Solaris, himself, decides to take them back, but that’ll be your problem by that point, not mine.”

The doll studied her carefully for a long minute, debating the offer and her promises, but the amused grin returned to his face before long, stretching further than she’d ever seen it as his little padded paw -long, sharp claws jutting out from it- reached out, “And here I thought you’d lost that amusing stare long ago.  You got yourself a deal, little shadow.”

Itara’s face twisted in disgust at the reminder of the black hedgehog, but reached her good hand out to take his paw.  She stopped short, however, and cast him a dark glare, “on one condition.”  Kipper frowned but prompted her to continue, “You can’t use it against us.  Me, RK, or Metal.  Your pranks are one thing, but don’t use that kind of power against any of us.  Also, I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to control it, either.  If it destroys you, that’s your own fault.”  The doll only laughed, nodding in agreement as he took the hedgehog’s crystallized hand, claws wrapping around the tiny wrist before turning to a white mist and disappearing inside her.

The small hedgehog body jerked at the sudden clash of two souls inside it, the pupils disappearing and the whites turning to a deep magenta.  Crystals spread up through its spines and along its arms while the glow around its legs brightened and then simmered again.  When pupils appeared in its eyes again, they were jet black and swirling, looking up at the computer screen, studying the maps carefully before floating down off the chair, its legs never quite touching the ground.  After a short conversation between the two souls inside, the smoldering glow surrounding the body’s legs shifted and, with an obvious struggle by the controlling soul, swapped position with the crystals on the arms.  It stretched the glowing, unbroken arm out, studied the now crystallized, strangely-shaped legs, and finally disappeared into a black mist in the floor.

 

Metal scowled once his attempt to laser the floor beneath them to escape failed, looking between the grid and RK, figuring he was likely going through his own processes to find an exit.  Robotnik was watching them closely, grinning with amusement, but had sent the other robot off to do something else.  It was just the three of them, for the first time in years, but there was no comfort in the familiarity.  He knew the mission was risky, but he hadn’t expected to be tricked so easily.  More than anything, he hadn’t expected Robotnik to be _prepared_ for their arrival.  It suggested more than he cared to admit, though apparently RK came to the same conclusion as he looked up at the sneering Doctor.

“You knew we were coming.”  There was no question about it.

“I had a fair idea, yes,” Robotnik responded, leaning back and crossing his arms, the grin never leaving his face, “thanks to a strange _anomaly_ that showed up in front of me.  I never would have guessed my rogue robots were in the hands of a small child.”

“What have you done with her?”

“Oh nothing… yet.  You should be asking what _she_ did to _me_!  The crystals were one thing, but I never expected something so small to cause so much destruction.  Tell me, Robot Knuckles,” he leaned forward again, “Just how long have you been working for her?”

“We work for no one,” Metal growled, glaring up at Robotnik, though the claim seemed to interest him.

“Is that so?  Then why did you risk capture to come _rescue_ a mobian?  You were built to destroy the mobians, not protect them.  Well, no matter now.  I’ll have you deactivated and reprogrammed soon enough, and with that anomaly’s extraordinary power in my hands not even Sonic will be able to stop me!”  Robotnik broke out into laughter while the robots returned to their escape plans, however it all came to a halting stop as the lights around the base flickered wildly again.  RK looked to Metal, who only shrugged, it wasn’t him this time, obviously, but Robotnik glared down at the consoles in his hovercraft.  “Oh, what now?!  Zero!  What’s happening?!”  A low buzz came from the comm unit, but no response from the other robot.  “Zero!”

Instead of a response, a loud screeching static screamed out from the comm, causing Robotnik to jump in place, scrambling to turn it off while the robots only looked on in confusion.  They were picking up a strange reading on their own radars but it wasn’t causing the same level of interference as it was on the hovercraft.  The lights continued to flicker and buzz, but the grid around them remained solid and intact, much to their dismay.  Just as Robotnik finally got the static to shut off, an empty holographic screen popped up, displaying nothing but further static.

“This old junk.  This is why I never use old models,” Robotnik grumbled, hitting a number of buttons to try and shut it off, getting no response from his creation.  RK, on the other hand, watched the static with a certain suspicion, questioning the likely cause.  He had a feeling it wasn’t just a malfunction.

As if to prove the point, as the lights zapped out entirely, a distorted orange and white face appeared against the static, eyes swirling black and red and a burning red gem glowing just above the torn, stained round ears.  Two long rows of blood-stained fangs spread out in a wild grin as its clawed arms moved up to reach out towards the screen.  A high-pitched screech echoed out through the darkness, though whether it came from the screen or Robotnik, neither of the robots could actually tell.  The robust man attempted to scramble away from the doll threatening to escape the screen, though only succeeded in knocking the hovercraft around, nearly throwing him from it.

RK, on the other hand, wasn’t sure whether he was relieved to see the doll or not, as he hadn’t since they left.  He had no idea Kipper was planning to come with them and, in fact, seemed to suggest otherwise with his flippant disregard for the travel plans.  Then again, that was just how the doll seemed to work, he did as he pleased and RK often wondered if he even knew what he was doing until he did it.

The ghost doll let out a vicious laugh and settled back against the screen again, though his grin hardly changed as the video changed to a feed of a location in the base.  It was empty at first, only showing a power unit of some kind, before zooming in -on its own- on a small burgundy hedgehog hobbling towards the massive power grid.  Before Robotnik could calm down enough to realize what was happening, the doll spoke, his voice shrill and glitched, “ _Guess who!_ ”  Robotnik only stared in terrified confusion, but the robots honed in on the display, studying it carefully until they recognized the lightly glowing figure.  “ _Run fast, Mama Bear._ ”

“What?  What’s happening?  What is that?!  Zero!  Zero where are you?!”

The hedgehog on the screen, seeming to get a signal from something off screen, looked up at the camera with glowing green and magenta eyes and waved with her smoldering, unbroken arm.  She then reached over and pressed that hand against the outer layer of the power core, the thick iron turning white hot and melting rapidly around it.  The base snapped and crackled in response, giving Robotnik all the answers he needed, as the feed disappeared with the power failure, bringing the power grid around the bots down with it.  Robotnik panicked, still trying to raise Zero on the comm unit, though still got no response.  Metal and RK grinned to one another, though before they took off turned their attention back to the panicking Doctor.

“N-Now, you… let’s just… can’t we talk about this?”

Metal scoffed but RK said nothing as he darted over, cleaving through the hovercraft and sending Robotnik rolling out as it crashed in a heap several feet away.  Metal’s arm sparked back up, moving threateningly towards Robotnik, but RK stopped him and motioned towards the doors.  Metal scowled at him resentfully for a moment, but followed soon enough as they pulled up a layout of the base to find the room Itara had been in.

They got as far as the lab she’d been in before Zero showed up again, sword in hand, ready to fight.  RK growled at the interruption, knowing the likelihood of the generators blowing with that kind of damage was all too likely, but calmed after a short conversation with Metal.  It didn’t take both of them to retrieve Itara and he doubted even Zero could catch Metal at full speed.  He just had to create an opening for him to get past that sword.  Stepping out in front, he pointed his claws out towards the other bot, “let’s finish that first fight, shall we?”

“Happily,” Zero grinned in response, both moving back into an attacking position.  Metal took a step back to give RK the space he needed in the narrow hallway, mapping out the fastest route to the tiny child as he waited for his opening.  Neither RK nor Zero wasted any time getting right to the point and as soon as RK had the other pinned down -brief as it was- Metal had his opening and was gone.  All he needed was half a second of the sword arm being out of commission and half a second was all he got.  As he raced down the hallways, the sounds of battle disappeared behind him.

Luckily there were few active robots in his path to slow him down, most relying on the now inactive power grid, and Metal reached the locked double doors to the core before long.  He questioned how the little girl even got through it in the first place, as he had to pry them open to get through, himself, but figured the doll likely had something to do with it.  However, as soon as he entered the smoldering room, he was glad he got there as quickly as he did.  Sending a quick update to RK about the state of the base, he called out for the tiny child, hearing her exhausted response before long.

Following her shockingly weak voice, he found her leaning up against a far wall struggling to stay awake.  “I have a long list of bones to pick with you, child,” he stated, walking over and kneeling beside her, looking over her as she shook herself awake.  “But I suppose it should wait until we’re safe.  Come on.”  He reached out to pick her up, but she shook her head.

“B-Be careful of my… arms,” she stammered, motioning towards the smoldering limbs lying to her sides.  “I don’t… I don’t wanna melt… you, too.”

“Hm.  Can you cross them, then?”

“M-Maybe.”  She reached over with the unbroken one to move the other against her stomach, cringing when it ate away at the remnants of her uniform that it touched.  But she got her arms against her stomach and kept a tight hold on the broken one, which had also burnt through her makeshift wrap.

Metal watched her carefully as she did so, waiting until he had her up in his arms and planned an escape route before asking, “what happened to your arms?”

“I don’t… know.  But one is b-broken,” she was struggling to stay awake but every time she nodded off and her arm slipped, it woke her right back up.  They needed to get out as quickly as possible for a number of reasons, and prompted Metal to hold the remainder of his questions for later. For now he adjusted her so she wouldn’t move much before taking off in a run again.  He informed RK that he had Itara and was headed for an exit, giving him a rendezvous point once he finished fighting Zero.  Once he got a response, Metal took off out of the base at the highest speed possible in the enclosed space.  If necessary, he would take Itara to a safe location and return to assist RK, but first was securing the small child.  Kipper, however, didn’t reappear.


	30. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaos has reawakened... and RK is lost to the tides.

A base threatening to explode.

Two robots locked in battle.

A Doctor scrambling to recover.

A third robot escaping with a broken time traveler.

 

Several miles away, near a bustling city alight with rumors of a recent crash, an ancient, furious entity collected and absorbed the powers within seven emeralds.  The island it slept on shook violently, the echidna tasked with watching over it jumped to action to find the source of the problem, though could only be grateful it wasn’t plummeting to the sea like it had before.  However, as the fury of the Water God reached its peak, it wasn’t the floating island above that felt its rage, but the city below.  Tides drifted far back, giving only a small warning of the destruction coming, as sewer grates rattled and plumbing shook.  As the residents of Station Square watched the rolling clouds in confusion, waters rushed forth in violent waves and the familiar roar echoed throughout the city.

Waves crashed, pipes burst, the city flooded through in a horrific repeat of the past, the great monstrosity at the center rose from the rushing waters.  Perfect Chaos had appeared once more and his floods rained from above and below.  Amongst those scrambling to higher grounds to avoid getting washed away as the ocean spread further inward than it ever had before, was a tiny blue hedgehog, who looked on in baffled confusion.  He’d been there before, he recognized the great monster, the situation, but just like before, he was lost on how to deal with it.  Chaos hadn’t just emptied the negative energy from the emeralds this time, he’d absorbed them completely, Super Sonic wasn’t going to be an option this time around.  And admittedly, even the blue blur was growing exhausted from all the activity as of late.  Not that he’d let that show in front of anyone.

Several miles outside the city, the robotic counterpart to the hero hedgehog was rushing away from a rumbling base, a barely conscious time traveler wrapped in his arms, only hoping to escape the mad doctor and his latest lackey.  However, as the roar of the creature reached even them, which startled the small child awake again, he realized that there were greater dangers headed their way than a sword-wielding robot.  A series of warnings popped up on his internal screen, but he didn’t need the environmental radar to know what was coming.

Luckily, they were in open air again, and not even a flood could catch Metal Sonic.

Metal gripped the tiny time traveler tighter and kickstarted his boosters as the water roared behind them.  He only waited long enough for them to whir to life before he took off at a speed only his mobian rival could compete with.  The world zipped by and the tide crashed behind him and to his right; if the tiny hedgehog had any response, he never saw nor heard it as he raced for their own aircraft.  They’d parked it some distance away, on the further edge of the city, but Metal had no doubt he could reach it before the tides did and as the relatively small, yet streamlined plane came into view, his theory was proven correct.  He slowed enough to get inside without crashing clean through the machine and shifted the hedgehog in his arms as he darted for the controls.  He beat the flood, but he still needed to act quick if he wanted to get off the ground before it caught up. The plane was considerably slower than him, after all.

The machine beeped to life and the engines purred as the water crashed ever-closer.  It was slower than he would have liked, but just as the water sloshed against the back wheels, the plane roared to life and they were off.  He had to make corrections for the jostling, but the plane was airborne and far above the waves before long.  Only after they were safely above the flood’s reach did he finally sit back and sigh in relief, though a look of concern touched his face again as soon as he did.

What about RK?

He studied the time traveler they came to rescue, since he had the time to, and gave her a small shake to drag her out of whatever shock she was apparently in.  It took several moments, but eventually she blinked and looked up at him in confusion.  Her eyes were still glazed over and there was exhaustion in her features, but she otherwise seemed coherent enough.

“M-Metal?  Was that… was Chaos…?”

“Unmistakably,” he confirmed, “I suppose out of the three, Chaos is usually the most direct in his aggression.  Though, so far as my intel goes, he only awakens when the Chao are in danger.  Robotnik wasn’t messing with them, in addition to all this other nonsense, was he?  Did he happen to mention his plans to you?”

She shook her head, both to clear it and in response.  “I tried getting them from him, but…”  She looked around, as far as she could see, though her brows furrowed as she looked up at him again, “Where’s RK?”

“I don’t know for sure.  We separated in the base, he kept Zero busy while I went to retrieve you.  I can’t say whether he made it out or not.”  The concern doubled on her face as she attempted to sit up, though didn’t get far before falling right back, wincing.  “I believe this craft has scanners-- if I connect to it, I should be able to locate him easily enough.  But first,” he flipped the autopilot on and moved towards the back to search the cabinets lined along the walls.  It wasn’t a passenger plane by any means, built for speed rather than carry weight, but the space not occupied by the two seats in the back had a number of shelving units.  He searched through them, unsure if he’d even find anything of use, but eventually came across a first aid kit and pulled it out.  “I don’t know what you did, but we need to at least get those arms taken care of.  Not only do I not want you burning through the plane, or me, but you mentioned one was broken, correct?”

Itara nodded, half awake, but kept her arms as tightly against herself as she could once he set her down on a seat.  “I think it would be beneficial if you rested, but let’s take care of your arms first,” Metal continued as he dug around in the white box.  He had been hoping for some kind of ice pack, but found everything short of one.  There were burn compresses, at least, though he doubted those would last long against something hot enough to melt metal.  “I’m going to assume you still can’t control your powers, as well.”

“I… n-no,” she stammered and looked away, “I didn’t even…”  She trailed off and Metal glanced up from the compresses, watching the tiny hedgehog doze off.  It would have to do for now.  He unwrapped the compresses and bandages and did his best to wrap her arms without getting _himself_ melted in the process then moved the hedgehog to a position most likely to keep her arms in her lap.  She burned through the compress and bandages quickly enough, leaving nothing but charcoal, but at least it didn’t seem to burn through her fur.  Her school uniform was a different story.

He closed the first aid kit with a light huff and returned to the pilot’s seat to plug in and search for RK, hoping he could still get some sort of reading on him.  Chaos was still raging through the city and he saw no sign of the infuriating hedgehog that always swooped in to save the day, leaving Metal to think back on the fight at the university.  He’d noticed a particular slowness in the cocksure speedster, but had assumed it was his own upgrades finally beating his nemesis.  But perhaps that wasn’t the case.  The Gods and their monsters must have kept even Sonic on his toes, especially if the attacks were stretching so far across the globe.  No doubt he was unable to ignore any of it and was likely running himself ragged trying to deal with it all at once.

The idea amused Metal, to a degree.  It was entertaining that he was finally facing a situation not so easily dealt with, but the fact that he, himself, wasn’t responsible for running the hedgehog to his edge was frustrating.  Twice now these Gods were about to steal his defeat of Sonic from him and he wasn’t going to sit quietly and let that happen.  He could always hunt the hedgehog down now, kill him while he’s weak, before anyone else has the opportunity… but first he needed to find RK.  That was priority one.  He could decide what to do about Sonic afterwards.

Metal flew over the area to survey the damage and keep an eye on Chaos’ movements.  He was hooked up to the plane so he could focus the scanner in on RK’s distinct readings while he circled the flooded-out base, but saw no sign of movement from either Robotnik nor RK.  Kipper had also vanished again.  He was sure, with Itara being away from Robotnik, the doll would return to her side where he always remained.  It threw suspicion on the doll’s movements as of late.  There was something going on there, but he didn’t have time to worry about it.

The time traveler woke up after a while, still groggy but recovered enough to remain lucid for longer than a few seconds.  She studied the crinkly, black wraps around her arms before she joined Metal at the front, though struggled to get there without touching anything.  She was still weak and her head felt light, but she knew there were bigger concerns and wanted to see how Metal was doing.  He glanced towards her when she joined him, though she sat on the floor between the chairs instead of trying to pull herself up into one.

“Any sign of RK?”

“Not yet.”

“Chaos?”

“Still rampaging.  Though his actions seem strange to me, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s searching for something.”

Itara looked towards the windshield, though could only see the dark skies above them from her spot.  She didn’t want to get up, either.  Instead, she sighed and leaned back against the side of the chair, closing her eyes.  After several minutes of silence, she added, “Robotnik knew…”

“What?”

“He knew, I don’t know how, but he knew you were with me after you went rogue.”

Metal remained silent and stared out through the glass, debating before shaking his head.  “How could he possibly have known?  I didn’t even join you by choice.  If anything, he should have known about RK, but… he was too ready for our attack, like he expected us to come.”

“According to Zero, he knew as soon as you went rogue that you came to me.  It doesn’t make sense, though.  Like you said, you didn’t even come by choice, RK just brought you home after the reset.  You were nearly destroyed; you didn’t just go rogue like before.  Certain things can be explained by the reset, of course, explanations for things that didn’t technically happen, but Robotnik knowing specifically you were with _me_ makes no sense.  He didn’t even know who I _was_.”

Metal eyed her suspiciously before a beep from the plane’s scanner brought his attention back to the ongoing search.  It was only one beep, but it drew both their attention as Metal turned the plane back around to return to the area it originated from.  Once they drew near, and Metal lowered the plane, the beep sounded again, then again.  It had picked something up.  Itara pushed herself to her feet to see out the window but was still too short.  Metal’s brow furrowed as he looked out over the water.  He had hoped to get a visual confirmation, but so far it was all water and floating parts.

“…If he’s underwater, and shorted, how are we getting him out?” Itara questioned, getting a side-eyed glare from Metal.  He had been hoping that _wasn’t_ the case, if he tried to retrieve RK, himself, he would only face the same fate.  He could stand certain amounts of water, but not being completely submerged.  But not only was RK a robot, he was one of the heaviest aside from the bulky defense bots.  If RK had been swept up in the flood, he was more than likely deep underwater.

As Metal debated how to deal with it, Itara stood back and went into her own thoughts, his lack of answer was response enough.  She looked between the window and her arms, namely the broken arm, and scrunched up her face.  “Has Kipper not come back?”

“No, I’ve seen no sign of the doll since he appeared on the Doctor’s video feed.”  Metal glanced back towards the little girl when she sighed dejectedly, unsure what was going through her head and about to question her when she looked up.

“I’ll go find RK.”

“What?  You can barely walk straight, what makes you think you can do anything?”

“Nothing, but you can’t, Kipper’s vanished again, and this plane doesn’t look equipped to go diving for robots.  So give me a location, lower me to the water, and I’ll go find him.”

Metal stared at her bewildered, but turned to look out the window again to think it over.  She was right, to a degree, but what good would it even do, sending an injured child to fetch a heavy robot like RK?  Then again, if he recalled properly, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d recovered the red robot from some form of wreckage on her own.  Though, she had full control of her powers the first time.  Now she was battered and broken and barely functional, not to mention her arms.  The chance of success was… low.

He shook his head and looked at the scanner again when it got another reading.  They needed to get closer.  They were still well out of the reach of the water, but the closer he got, the stronger the reading.  RK was definitely down there somewhere, and someone had to get him.  Even if he went, himself, and somehow recovered the other bot before shorting, there’d be no one to pull them back up since Itara couldn’t touch anything without melting it.  With a quick glance around, he spotted the top of the base, still somehow above water -though just barely- and maneuvered over to it.  Itara watched him strangely, but he ignored her questions when she asked.

The landing was precarious enough, and anything less than perfection would have toppled the plane into the roaring water with everything else, but luckily he was a perfect being.  Once the plane was safely landed, he got up and faced the confused little time traveler.

“What are you-?”

“You want to jump out of a moving plane?”

“Well… no, I-.”

“I can be more useful on solid ground than in the air, as solid as it gets at the moment.  As you guessed, this plane has nothing to pick him up, should you manage to bring him to the surface, so you’ll have to bring him within my reach.”

Itara stared up at him, confused, before she realized what he was saying and nodded.  “Right.  Got it.”

“Good.  Then let’s get moving.”

Itara climbed out of the plane as carefully as possible while Metal searched for anything else that could possibly be of use.  The tiny hedgehog needed a way to actually pull the potentially buried, heavy robot out with her flaming arms – one of which was broken – and while there was a chance the water could cool her arms enough to not melt RK immediately, it still left the problem of the incapacitated one.  He’d seen, time and again, the complete and utter lack of physical strength in the time traveler and there was no possible way she was fighting against the current _and_ dragging a several-hundred-pound robot to the surface on her own.

“Metal, what are the chances we can get a more exact location on his readings?”

Chaos’ rage hadn’t slowed in the slightest and, while the worst of the waves were closer to the city, they were still crashing violently around them.  There was only a small handful of feet between he base’s roof and water levels and every time it swelled up, the roof was briefly submerged in a couple inches of water.  Metal wasn’t looking forward to standing in that, even if he had a protective layer on his feet nowadays, but it also meant the less time Itara spent in such erratic behavior, the better.  “I’ll see what I can do to narrow it down further in a moment,” he responded once he found what he’d been searching for and took the rope out to her, “but first, come here so I can tie this around you.”

“What?  Why?”

“When… _if_ … you find RK, wrap it around him as securely as possible and give it a tug, preferably without burning through it, and I’ll pull you both up.  Your tiny limbs will be lucky enough to just reach him without being swept off, pulling him up on your own will be impossible.”  Itara made a face, but remained silent as the bot wrapped the rope around her waist.  “There.  Now all you have to do is get around him a couple times and I can pull you both up without going near the water, myself.  It should hopefully be long enough.  Additionally, if you _do_ get swept off, I can keep track of you.”

Itara studied the rope suspiciously.  It was a good idea, she was just mad she didn’t think of it.  Metal wrapped the back half of the rope around his hand and returned to the plane to fidget with the locator further.  Once he narrowed the reading down further, he relayed the information to the tiny hedgehog sat at the edge of the roof as she prepared to jump in.  There wasn’t much of a drop, but for someone not even three feet tall, it was a considerable drop into freezing cold water.  Though, the water the crashed up every so often had already introduced her to the temperature a number of times by that point.  With a final confirmation from Metal, she took a deep breath, shimmied off the roof, and dropped down with a violent _hiss_ as her arms steamed the water around them.  Metal watched the steam rise from a distance before he edged closer, unsure whether she would actually be able to manage.

As soon as he edged close enough to see the focal point of the steam the mass of wild spines popped up above the water again and looked up at him.  She looked oddly content, even as she struggled to keep her head above the water, as she floated in the evaporating water.  With a final nod, she dove back under and took off.  Well, at least it would be easy to keep track of her with all the steam and bubbles.  Even once she got deep enough that her figure was obscured, the bubbles gave him a consistent update on her progress.

He watched on in silence and kept track of her bubble movement, though grew concerned whenever they veered too far off to the side or remained in one place for too long.  His concerns were usually relieved when she resurfaced for air and gave him whatever updates she could manage, but more than once he’d had to pull her closer again when the water took her too far off-course.  The exhaustion wasn’t difficult to pick out, either, in both her voice and movements, but he figured if she lost consciousness at any point he could easily pull her back again and, quite frankly, they just didn’t have the time to worry about it.  The waves were growing in size as Chaos moved and the longer RK spent submerged, the more damaged he got.  They were not built to resist water like this, not to mention he didn’t know how much damage he took during the fight with Zero.  If there were any exposed wires…

Metal shook his head.  It could be repaired, whatever happened.  If the other two could repair _him_ from the state Solaris left him in, he could easily repair RK after some water damage.  Though, admittedly, the longer the hedgehog took, the antsier he got.  It wasn’t helping that he could still hear – _and see_ – Chaos roaring in the distance with no clear sign of when he would stop.  Whatever had woken the Water God had certainly pissed him off.  Normally it would be of no concern to Metal, he had nothing to do with it, but the water levels were raising even this far out and if it kept up too long they’d be too submerged to take off again.  They would all drown.

He warned the tiny hedgehog of this the next time she surfaced, though she didn’t respond and he wasn’t sure if she had ignored him or just didn’t hear him before she went back under.  In either case, it only made him antsier and angrier.  But finally, _finally_ , after she failed to come up for some time, the rope wrapped around his hand stretched out and grew taut.  He watched the still bubbling water closely to be sure it meant to pull them out, but once he was certain he stepped back and planted himself as firmly on the flooded roof as possible.  He wasn’t quite as heavy as RK, but assumed he was plenty strong enough to pull the other bot from the water.

He wrapped the rope further around his hand, gripped it with the other, and gave an initial, hearty tug to verify it would, in fact move.  With the confirmation, he continued pulling at a steadier pace.  It was no easy task, even for him, it felt like he was pulling a log out of the sand, telling Metal that RK was at least somewhat buried under _something_ , either rubble or dirt.  However, he progressed at a relatively steady pace, despite the resistance.  What concerned him wasn’t his own ability to pull the weight in, however, it was the rope’s ability to withstand the strain.  Thick of a rope as it was, he could still see the thinning just above the water.  He had to get them up as quickly as possible before it tore.

Unfortunately, that almost seemed inevitable when progress came to a short stop and nearly pulled the blue bot forward in the process.  A string of curses echoed loudly from the bot as he readjusted and reconsidered his strategy to deal with the snag.  Though, without knowledge of the cause, he wasn’t sure how to shift.  Too hard of a pull would snap the rope, for sure, but he couldn’t waste time, either, especially with how long the hedgehog had spent under the water.  He was unaware of how long she could hold her breath, but didn’t want to accidentally drown her.

Just as suddenly as they snagged, though, the line loosened again as a great force of steam rushed from below the surface.  Metal could only guess what it meant, but he at least knew whatever caused the snag was gone and he returned to pulling them in straightaway, watching the tear sharply the entire time.  Luckily, the more he pulled, the closer the tear got to him and he was able to secure it before it snapped.

Finally, the shadow of a figure appeared below the surface and with a few more tugs, the inactive red robot surfaced along with the steam-clouded hedgehog wrapped up in him.  She gasped loudly as soon as she reached air, coughing and cringing, and as Metal pulled them both to the mostly dry ground, her cough turned to quiet whimpers.  She looked noticeably worse for wear, but at least they were both back relatively safe and the three could leave.  However, as Metal shifted his gaze from the whimpering hedgehog, who was now cradling her arm, to the red robot she went in to retrieve, he got an idea what may have happened with the snag.

RK was mostly intact, inactive and obviously shorted from the water, his hook had been seared off in the fight against Zero but that was easily replaced.  There were a couple dents in his arms and parts of the faux fur covering were singed off, likely from the secondary fight, all in all he could have been much worse off.  However, the worst of the damage, and the most recent by evidence of the molten red edges, was the partially severed leg.  Metal looked to the hedgehog with a sharp, accusatory gaze and she all but shriveled when she caught sight of it.

“I… He… there was…” she stammered through coughs, “He got… stuck under… th-there was rubble and I… I didn’t… I…”  The longer she attempted to explain herself, the less cohesive her explanation became until she burst into a fit of tears and hiccupped apologies.

Metal sighed in annoyance and motioned towards the plane, “Fine, fine, shut up.  We can fix it.  Get inside so we can leave already.”  They honestly were quite the group of broken misfits at this point.  A time traveler that couldn’t control her powers and two _repeatedly_ broken, rogue robots.  He supposed it was his turn to repair RK now.  He watched the little hedgehog stumble her way into the plane and find a corner to curl up in before he picked the hefty red echidna up and found a place for him, as well.  Once they were set and the doors were closed, Metal wasted no further time getting airborne again and taking off for home.

As they got higher, and could see more of Chaos’ destruction, he became increasingly grateful that their own base was far across the ocean.  Initially the distance had been annoying, but seeing how far the ocean was reaching inland, with no _Super Sonic_ around to stop it, Metal appreciated the distance.  They had just barely avoided the point of no return, themselves.  Hopefully the more nearby Gods continued their monster-based raging, rather than following suit.

Once they were on their way and Metal could comfortably leave the plane on autopilot, he turned back towards the others and studied the two at the back and had an idea.  “Hey, tiny child,” she barely glanced up, “why not make use of that damage and start drying RK’s systems.  Just don’t _melt him further_.”  She winced at the sharp tone, but nodded and moved towards the inactive robot.  If she held her arm near him, being careful of the distance, she could get a head start on drying him out so repairs would be quicker.  She would just need to be cautious about overheating him.  However, Metal didn’t seem interested in letting her work in silence, as he spoke up again, “So tell me what happened.  From the beginning.”  She winced again, but sighed and explained, in as much detail as possible, what happened after the university.


	31. Brief Respite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Disrepair House returns home, broken, beaten... ready to hide away.
> 
> But first they have to deal with Lynda.

Both Itara and Metal had expected their struggle to take a break as soon as the plane landed.  They could return home, get RK down to the lab, and begin repairs.  Itara would have to get her arm properly taken care of and Metal would need to look into replacement parts for RK’s missing leg, but they could manage that easily enough compared to everything else.  But it was never _that_ easy.  As soon as they returned home and Metal returned the plane to the base they’d stolen it from, they faced a new series of issues trying to get RK home without alerting _Lynda_.

For the exact reason RK had asked her to keep a watch out for Itara, they realized, she would prove just as impossible to sneak past to reach the house.  Itara suggested they do the same as she and RK had done when moving _Metal_ to the new base, which, of course, accidentally informed the furious bot on how he’d been transported to said house.  Itara barely managed to talk him out of strangling her by reminding him that there were more pressing issues but once that rage had been momentarily simmered it meant they had to get a box big enough and another rental that could fit it.  Metal could have easily carried all of it, himself, but that would look equally suspicious.  Luckily, Itara knew how they handled it the first time and had Metal take her to the old antique shop to ask Old Ned for help, whom Metal had yet to meet.

However, as soon as they walked in the door and called out for the old fox, who was watching his shows from the counter as he often was, he immediately screeched and toppled off his chair at the sight of Metal Sonic.  Neither of them had expected such a violent reaction, or recognition at all for that matter, and it took Itara a couple minutes to calm him enough to try and talk him down.  Explaining Kipper had been one thing, no one knew Tails Doll to begin with, but trying to convince an older mobian that Metal Sonic walking in his door _wasn’t_ a sign of doom was entirely different.  It wasn’t until Ned caught onto Itara’s broken arm that he finally shifted his focus away from the annoyed bot to the small girl.

“For the love of Chaos, what happened to your arm, girl?”

Itara winced at the saying and got strange look from the old fox, “It’s… a long story…”  She shook her head when he cast a long sideways glance towards Metal and continued, “I need a favor, though.”

“And what is that?”

“A really big box… and, uh… do you… drive at all?”

Ned cocked an eyebrow, getting a feeling of déjà vu, and nodded slowly.  Itara did her best to explain the situation without giving away the finer details, but got sideways glances from him and Metal the entire time.  She got the point across enough to prompt Ned to get his keys and a box big enough loaded into the car she never even knew he had eventually, though.  It was just an old flat-bed truck, but it would be enough.  Metal decided to meet them at the base and ran off, leaving Itara to ride along with Ned so she could give him directions.  Metal didn’t seem overly pleased about taking the fox, himself, to the base, and let Itara know before taking off, but Itara didn’t see any other way to get past Lynda.

Ned led her to the truck and helped her up into the passenger side when she struggled to do so on her own, where she melted into the old torn up leather seat, though kept a wary caution about her arms.  She gave Ned their heading and closed her eyes to try and relax again once they were off.  If she could just relax enough, she thought she could get the flames to simmer down.  It was how her crystals worked, after all, she figured the flames would be the same.  The dip in the flooding ocean cooled them down considerably, as well, they didn’t glow so badly and she didn’t think they’d melt through steel anymore.  They would definitely burn a leather seat, though.

When she opened her eyes again to see where they were, she noticed the old fox glance cautiously towards her every few seconds and winced.  He caught the movement and apparently decided he was done being silent.

“Alright, I want answers, little girl.”  Itara sighed.  She was getting tired of hearing that.  But for Ned, at least, it was less frustration with him and more not wanting to reveal too much.  Then again, maybe it was a bit too late for that.  “I have a heap of questions, but firstly, why are you running around with _Metal Sonic_?  Do you know what he is?”

Itara shook her head, “I… I know but he… look, you have to keep this secret, okay?  Promise you won’t tell anyone.”  He eyed her suspiciously, but nodded slowly, prompting her to continue, “it’s a _really_ long story, that I can’t fully explain, but… well… he’s not… he doesn’t work for Robotnik anymore.  He was badly damaged in a fight, RK and I took him in and repaired him.  He’s been with us since.”

“Why on earth would you do that?”

“Well, technically _I_ didn’t.  I wasn’t around when RK brought him home, but it’s because…”  She debated how to explain it but was too tired to care anymore and, quite frankly, she had a feeling none of it would matter for long, anyway.  “Both of them are robots.”  She looked up to watch his expression, to gauge his response.  To her surprise, he looked more contemplative than shocked or even concerned.  “You don’t… look surprised.”

“Girly, no normal mobian has black for the whites of his eyes.”

She almost laughed.  It was just so blunt and obvious, it had always been a point of paranoia for her but no one had expressly questioned it until now.  Though she did briefly wonder what everyone else actually thought.  “I suppose… you’re right,” she managed and looked down again after pointing him down another street, “RK is short for Robot Knuckles, a decommissioned counterpart to Knuckles, created for the same purpose as Metal Sonic.  I rescued him first, from a destroyed base.  Both their loyalty chips were damaged and they’ve just been with me since.  We’ve been trying to stay under Robotnik’s radar as much as possible, so he doesn’t take them back.  But he… nearly did.”  Her shoulders slumped and Ned glanced over at her curiously, keeping one ear turned towards her as he drove.

“If Kipper hadn’t… if I hadn’t been able to… they came to get me and they… they almost got caught.  Everything we’ve worked so hard to avoid almost…”  She curled up again, cringing when she accidentally moved her arm in the process and shook her head.  “They came to get me, because of my stupid, _stupid_ crystals, because I couldn’t control them… and I almost got them captured by Robotnik.  I almost lost them.  I… I shouldn’t have… I-.”

She stopped as she felt a hand rest on her head, rubbing it carefully, and looked up at the soft-faced fox who was watching her through the corner of his eye.  “C’mon now, girly, whatever happened, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”

“But I-!”

“No, none of that now.  You’re fine now, aren’t you?  And the robots are back home, aren’t they?  Whatever you’re going off about, toss it away.  Everything will be okay.”  Itara’s brows furrowed up at him, wanting to argue but he shook his head the second she tried.  “Enough of that.  Instead, why don’t you tell me what happened?  Why are you so banged up and what happened to your arm?”

Itara went silent for a few minutes to think it over, but slowly explained the situation with her field trip, telling him about Sceira’s annoying persistence, the game night at the hotel, her matches against Metal, and eventually the situation at the university.  She explained the attack and the strange robot from the other world and the explosion on the carrier – even the fact that she caused it – and then RK and Metal and Kipper coming to get her.  By the time they reached the hidden base with the plane, she was explaining how they had to drag RK from the water and that he was inactive and missing a leg and needed to get past Lynda.  The old fox sat and listened quietly the entire time, his only reactions being that of shock or confusion once in a while, but let her go on uninterrupted.

When they pulled up to the plane and Ned helped her out, she was finally out of story to tell and Metal watched them both suspiciously when Ned gave no outwards response to either him, the base, the plane, or the inactive RK behind him.  Once she had a moment to breathe and think about the ride, Itara’s eyes widened as she looked up at Ned, as well, her hand going up to her mouth though she winced at the heat and put it back down.  “I talked too much!  Please don’t tell anyone!”  Metal shot her a scowl but Ned only smiled.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, young’in, I already promised, didn’t I?”  He looked over at the scowling Metal Sonic and studied him cautiously before he folded his arms, “As for you,” Metal shifted his glance, though his scowl went nowhere, “so long as you promise to keep the little’un safe like your partner there’s been doing, we don’t have a problem.  The past is the past, right?” Metal’s expression finally shifted to confusion while Itara only stared on in shock.

Metal’s gaze became suspicious as he looked back and forth between the two, but stated, “If you expect me to Mother Hen like RK then it’s not happening.  But I suppose _someone_ has to keep an eye on the little troublemaker when RK can’t.”  He crossed his arms and looked away while Ned grinned down at Itara and winked, getting a smile from her.

“That’s good enough for me, now let’s get that boy packed up and home, shall we?”  He moved to the back of the truck to get the shipping crate open while Metal and Itara exchanged glances.  They weren’t expecting it to be so easy to convince the old fox to help out, especially once he recognized Metal, but moved to help out after a minute of confusion.  They worked to get RK packed up into the crate, closed it tightly, and secured the box to the back of the truck.  Once that was done, Itara gave him directions to their house and they filed back into the truck, though Metal planned to run again.  Ned rolled the window down once he got in and looked to the robot staring off in thought.

“So we’ll meet you at your house, then, and get this taken care of, but then we need to do something about the little one’s arm.  I don’t know what we can do about that burning, but we need to at least get that break taken care of, it’s already been sitting long enough.  May end up healing wrong at this point.”  Itara frowned and looked down at her arm while Metal studied them both, nodding before taking off in a run.  Ned watched the cloud of dust left in place of the robot then shook his head and started the truck to follow.

The ride was mostly silent that time, Itara lost in thought about her arm and how to get the flame to go down.  It was cooling down still, at least, but she wondered if a normal doctor could even do anything about it.  No one could touch her arms without getting burnt, themselves.  Even trying to wrap or splint it would prove difficult, since she’d sear any bandage right back off.  She had to control the flame first.  She took a long, slow, deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to reach out for the inner flame in the same way she reached for the shadows before.  It had been a fruitless venture since the reset, and she doubted it would be any different now, but she had to at least try.  If she could just calm down enough.  She just had to calm down.

_Everything would be okay._

_Everything was fine._

_She was fine._

_Metal and RK were home._

_Robotnik and Chaos were an ocean away._

_Soleanna was fine._

_Ned was calm._

_Everything would be_ fine.

She felt a light tap on her head and opened her eyes again to look up at the curious fox.  “We’re here, girly.  C’mon, let’s get this taken care of and get you to a hospital.”  Itara nodded and looked up to see Metal already waiting beside the driveway to take the RK-containing box inside.  They pulled in and Metal climbed up to detach the box from the back of the truck, but they didn’t get far before all three sets of ears picked up the high-pitched screech of the human woman bolting down the sidewalk at them.  Itara’s ears flattened, Metal sighed in frustration, and Ned only glanced towards the strawberry blonde curiously.

“Itara!  Oh, thank heavens, you’re back!  You’re okay!  Where have you been?!”  She barely cast the others a glance as she b-lined for the hedgehog girl, giving Metal a moment to continue his work releasing the box from the truck’s latches.  Though getting it inside, he realized, was going to be more difficult than he expected.

Itara cringed at the shrill voice, shuffling uncomfortably until she had to take a quick step back to avoid getting picked up.  “I…”  What was she supposed to tell Lynda, exactly?  What had RK told her?  Luckily, Lynda wasn’t well-known for waiting for an answer before continuing on as she looked over the hedgehog girl as closely as she would let her.

“Goodness, you just look a wreck.  What on earth happened?  Where is RK?”

“RK is… on his way back,” Itara lied, though struggled to keep her eyes off the box Metal was staring down in debate.  “Sparky found me first and brought me home, RK will be home soon.”

“Thank goodness, I’m so glad you’re alright.”  However, her attention shifted soon enough to the frustrated bot standing over the box on the back of the truck.  “I’m glad you were able to get her home, Sparky… what are you doing over there?”

All eyes fell to the blue bot as he mumbled incoherently under his breath and glanced back at the woman.  He wasn’t sure how to answer, but more importantly, he didn’t know how to get RK inside.  The box he was in was too large for the front door, by far, and the garage door was fake.  If he took the echidna out in full view of the street it would only cause more problems not even he wanted to deal with right now, but he didn’t know how to deal with this in an inconspicuous manner _before_ Lynda brought attention to him.  Even if he answered, she would likely suggest just taking it through the garage door if it didn’t fit in the front door.

With a quick glance between Metal and Lynda, Itara realized the conundrum the bot faced and almost laughed with the familiarity.  She resisted, though, and considered a possible answer.  Before, when they were moving Metal, they had the excuse of moving houses.  They didn’t have that now.  Well, she was a creative liar, she was sure she could come up with something.  It was the only non-power talent her father ever taught her.  While she considered a reason for the box, she grabbed Metal’s attention and pointed to the gate, mumbling a soft, “ _backdoor_.”  He nodded and hefted the box up onto his shoulder, jumping down from the truck to head for the fence while Lynda watched them strangely.

“What on earth is that?”

“Um, well,” Itara stammered, looking between Metal and Lynda and Ned, though jumped when Lynda followed after Metal all of a sudden, “uh!”

Metal glanced back at them and his eyes narrowed when he realized Lynda was following him.  Before he could question her motives, she piped up, “the latch is behind the gate, right?  Trying to reach with that heavy box on your shoulder would be difficult, let me get it for you.  You know, it’s funny, I had to help RK with the same thing when he and Itara first moved in.”  Metal shot a scowl back to the tiny, flustered hedgehog while Lynda reached over the fence to unlatch it, “you mobians really are a lot stronger than you look, aren’t you?  That box looks like it weighs quite a bit just on its own.  I can’t imagine anything that needs something that size is all that light, either.”

Metal only grumbled in response as Itara shot Ned a look of confusion before following after the other two.  The old fox shrugged in response, unsure how to deal with the nosy woman, either.  Itara was hoping Metal could get the box in the back and move RK inside with the cover of the fence, but once again, Lynda was making that difficult.  RK wasn’t around to deal with her and neither Itara nor Metal were all that great at dodging Lynda’s questions.  Metal only knew how to threaten her and the human woman commanded a level of social dominance that Itara couldn’t ever hope to overcome.  It was only when RK _wasn’t_ around that the two realized how imperative he was for dealing with nosy women and questioned when and how the red bot managed to attain suburban mom levels of conversational power.

They would have to question him about it once they got him repaired, but for now, they had to deal with Lynda on their own.

Metal took the box to the back deck and compared the width of the back door to the width of the box, realizing quickly enough that Itara had misled him about the size.  With a quick scowl at the girl, he turned to face the woman that had followed him, wanting nothing more than to be rid of her.  Much to his dismay, she did her own quick survey and stated, “this is far too big for this door.  Wouldn’t have been easier to take it through the garage?”

Metal mentally sighed but, for once, the tiny hedgehog came of use as she explained with her usual stutter, “I-it’s… the garage is… the door is broken.  It doesn’t open from the outside so it’s easier to bring things in from the back door.”

“Oh, I see,” Lynda mused, “RK seems like such a handyman, I’m surprised he hasn’t fixed that yet.”

“Well, he… you’ll have to ask him about that when he gets back.  Maybe he just forgot.  We don’t need to open the garage very often, after all,” Itara offered.

“Hm, well, I suppose.  In any case, you’re not fitting that box through that door.  Are you going to be able to fit whatever’s inside through if you take it out?  What’s even in there?”

There was silence between the three as both Itara and Metal scrounged for a satisfactory lie.  It was Metal who finally answered with a simple, “A… fridge.”  He knew that was a home appliance large enough to fit inside the box they’d borrowed and one that was necessary to the average household.  Sure, they already had one, but it wasn’t completely out of the question that they might require a new one.  Both Itara and Lynda shot him a strange look at his answer, though.  Itara’s was far more accusatory as there was no reason why they would be shopping for a fridge _now_ of all times.

“A… fridge?  Odd time to be appliance shopping,” Lynda challenged, eyeing Metal suspiciously.

“It was on the way before everything happened,” Itara immediately cut in, “N-Ned owns a shop and ordered it for us.  He was just already bringing it over when we stopped by.”

“Yes.  Two birds, one stone, as they say,” Metal offered coolly, though was just hoping Lynda would leave soon.

“I… see.  I suppose that makes sense,” Lynda muttered slowly, but turned back and questioned, “though shouldn’t getting Itara taken care of be more important than a fridge right now?”

Metal’s mouth pulled back in annoyance, before he saw his opportunity and took it, “Yes.  It is.  In fact, I plan to do that now.  Come, Itara, we should get you to the… hospital.  I’ll come back to… install the fridge later.”  He waved her on rather impatiently, causing the girl to jump but once she realized it was their out, she nodded quickly and turned to walk back out to the front.  Lynda, at last, seemed satisfied with their answer and followed them both back out to the front.  Metal closed and locked the gate behind them while Itara returned to Ned, who was still waiting out by his truck.

“Well then let me know how everything goes when you get back.  I’ll give RK a call to let him know you’re both home safe and off to the hospital.  Let me know when you get home again, alright?”

Itara watched in confusion as Lynda pulled her phone out to apparently call RK, wondering when she even got his number.  Her unvoiced question caught the woman’s attention as she smiled and explained, “he gave me his work number so I could let him know if you came home before him.”  The confusion left Itara’s face as she realized what the ‘work’ number was and could only nod.  It wasn’t exactly a cellphone and Lynda wasn’t getting anywhere with it at the moment, considering RK – and his comm units – were offline.  But that was concern for later.

Instead, her focus returned to Metal, who looked back and forth between Lynda and the truck.  He _said_ he would take Itara to the hospital, but he’d originally planned to just let the fox do it while he went downstairs to start on repairs.  If he didn’t go now, it opened the potential for Lynda to bother him further.  He could easily run Itara to a hospital in the city and run back in no time, but that might also look suspicious on his part.  As he thought over the options, he scowled as he realized his only realistic answer was to join them _in the truck_ , on the ride over.  He could run back on his own afterwards, likely get into the backyard and the house without anyone seeing him, but for now…

With a heavy, dramatic sigh, he reached over and picked Itara up and motioned for Ned to lead the way.  Itara watched him suspiciously, but he said nothing as he climbed in the passenger seat of the truck next to the old fox.  There were only the driver and passenger seats in the truck, meaning to fit all three of them, Itara would have to sit in his lap.  As tempted as he was to tie her to the back.

Lynda gave them a final wave as she returned down the street to her own house, leaving quite the lengthy voicemail for RK whenever he reactivated, and Ned started the dilapidated old truck up.  Itara shifted uncomfortably in the scowling bot’s lap, unsure what to make of the situation, but the old fox could barely keep the amusement off his face.  As terrified as he’d been when Metal Sonic walked in his shop door earlier, as convinced as he was that that was the end of his life, the image of the killer robot sitting, pouting, in the passenger seat of his truck, a tiny hedgehog child sat in his lap, on a ride to a hospital to get her broken arm taken care of, amused him greatly.  Between RK coming in, so long ago, to buy a doll for his ‘daughter’ and now Metal Sonic riding with her to the hospital, Ned found it increasingly easy to believe the little girl about the ex-killer Robotnik robots.


	32. The Journal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is home and RK is undergoing repairs... but Itara realizes she's lost something important.

Metal glanced around the quiet lab space.

The almost uncomfortably quiet lab space.

Since his initial reactivation in the ‘new timeline’ and this new location, this new lab, amongst his former battle partner and the tiny time traveling child he accompanied and their annoying little talking doll, he couldn’t remember a time the lab – or the house above it – was so quiet.  Even in the hours when the small child was at school or down the street with her human friend, either the doll was making a ruckus or the sound of the TV filled the base or RK was bugging him about playing games all day and not charging.  Now the only sound throughout the house and the lab was the computer beeping away as it ran diagnostics on the broken remains of the robotic echidna.

If Metal Sonic were the type to ever be uncomfortable, which he distinctly was not, he would find the silence distressing.  Instead, he focused on finding parts to repair RK and took the rare moment of calm for all it was worth because he was sure it wouldn’t last.  Even if the tiny child was out longer than he initially expected.

He had bolted from the hospital the second they arrived, only staying long enough to confirm that the old fox would bring her home so he wouldn’t have to go pick her up, so he knew nothing of what happened afterwards.  However, that had been two days ago and they still hadn’t returned.  Not that he was worried, of course.  He’d only noticed her continued absence because he expected her to be bothering him by now.  But if she wasn’t, it meant he could continue his work unimpeded and he was fine with that.  RK required a lot of it, after all, and the sooner he got the other bot back online, the better.  _Someone_ needed to deal with Lynda and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him.

However, even if he got RK back online, he still needed to deal with the repairs of his leg and Metal was having a hard time finding replacement parts.  He’d searched every square inch of the lab and house but found nothing of workable condition and it appeared more and more as though he’d have to leave to find what he needed.  He didn’t want to leave the other bot alone while he searched, though, and thus required the small child to return.  The ghost doll wasn’t around, either.  He wasn’t with Itara when he picked her up in the core, either, since he had obviously been there at some point.  He was unsure why but hadn’t had the opportunity to ask yet, either.

He moved from the pile of unusable robotics back to the computer where RK was hooked up and studied the massive heap of broken parts.  Metal did what he could to dry the other bot out, having to open panels and remove several casings to thoroughly dry out the inner workings, and left them exposed for the time being just in case.

The echidna took a fair amount of damage in the final battle with the stranger robot, in addition to the damage done by the exploding base and flood.  One leg was cut through by the small child to free him from whatever he caught on during the pull up, a frantic job that left jagged edges around the lost knee in addition to the damaged wiring.  Unlike Metal’s legs after the fight with Solaris, which barely required more than welding back together, RK’s leg needed entirely new wiring all the way through.  Beyond that, the arm that often sported a hook to replace a long since lost hand was sliced through, though it was down the arm instead of across.  If Metal had to guess, it was done by the glowing sword the stranger robot used, judging by the clean cut that reached all the way up to the shoulder.

There was a rather massive area on RK’s left side that dented so far inward it damaged a number of inner workings, though at least his core mainframe remained shockingly intact.  Waterlogged, but repairable.  It had been one of the first parts Metal checked once he got him down to the lab.  If his core programs were damaged it would be a lengthy process to repair and reprogram and Metal doubted even he could do it fully.  As strong as RK was, he had been inactive for a long time and was actually rather outdated, despite the ‘upgrades’ Itara gave him over time.  Metal doubted he could perfectly replicate the old system his companion ran on without access to the original systems he was built with, which had long since been destroyed.

Luckily, though, his AI and mainframe remained intact, damaged as the rest of him was.  It meant, once the water damage was taken care of, RK could be rebooted with minimal problems.  Though, he had to admit, the process would likely be easier with Itara’s assistance, since she’d done the majority of RK’s rebooting process and upgrades and repairs after his initial reactivation.  Only she and RK knew exactly what was done.  Metal scowled at that thought.  Surely, he didn’t _need_ the small child to repair RK, at least enough to reboot him.  He could figure out what needed to be done on his own.

However, as he pushed himself up to look through the lab once more for any potential replacement wirings, the computer screen brought up the video feed at the front door.  Metal nearly ignored it, not wanting to chance any interactions with Lynda, but when the doorbell didn’t ring as he expected it to, he looked up.  It was the small child.  She was finally home.  Ned was helping her out of the truck, her arm wrapped up and in a sling over her shoulder.  The old fox handed her something from the seat and when she walked around towards the door, Metal noticed she had changed out of her old, burnt school uniform and was instead dressed in a light blue dress, new shoes, and her quills were pulled up into messy pigtails.

With a short moment of thought, he set what he was holding down and headed up the stairs to meet her.  He wanted to have a word with her.  As he reached the top of the stairs, she pushed the front door open and half called out for him, though jumped when he appeared much quicker than she had apparently been expecting.

“Metal… _why_ ,” she breathed, though recollected herself quickly enough, getting hardly more than a raised eyebrow from the bot.  Once Ned was inside and the door was closed, she continued over to the table to set the small bag down on it while Metal followed after her.

“What took you so long?”

Itara raised an eyebrow but shook her head and explained, “it took a while to find a material I didn’t just burn through.  The doctor wanted me stay overnight to make sure everything would be alright.”  She sighed in annoyance and continued, “I just barely managed to escape when I did.”

“They sent her home with some replacement wraps and pain medication,” Ned added, motioning to the white bag Itara had put on the table, “they said the wraps should last a couple days, but if they start losing their cooling affect, they should be replaced immediately.  There’s also a salve to put between the arms and wraps to reduce the smolder further, though it’ll mostly depend on how long it takes her to control it.  From what she told me, it should be about the same as getting her crystals to go down so it’s possible she’ll be fine on that end by tomorrow.  As for the broken arm, though, she needs to go back to the hospital in a couple weeks to check up on it.  That’s going to take a bit more maintenance before it’s healed completely, considering how long it sat before it got taken care of.”

Itara winced at the mention of the break.  They had to re-break it to set it correctly and that had _hurt_.  It was still sore and apparently it would be for some time, even with the pain meds.  Metal, however, remained silent in thought as he considered how little he wanted to deal with taking the hedgehog back and forth to the hospital.  He silently hoped they could reactivate RK before that was necessary.  Though, with the state of the other bot’s leg, even if he reactivated, Metal wondered if he’d be able to take her.  He gave a light huff and waved the thought away, “Fine, fine.  I’ll… see about it all.  I suppose.  Little brat.”  He looked over at the elderly fox when he felt a light tap on his arm and raised an eyebrow at the sharp look the antique was giving him.  Why was this old shop owner so brazen?  He looked far too easy to break to be Sonic levels of bold in the face of an ex-Robotnik robot.

Before he could say anything about it, however, Ned moved over beside Itara again and pat her head lightly and looked over her, “do you think you’ll be alright for now?”  She nodded, albeit slowly and glanced up towards the tall blue bot eyeing her sharply from behind the fox.  “Alright, then tell RK I hope he recovers soon and you have my number if you need anything at all.”  With another nod, he headed for the door, offering Metal a warm smile, “remember, take care of her.”  Metal narrowed his eyes, but said nothing as Itara followed the fox out and back to his truck.

“Th-thank you… again… Ned,” she stammered as he climbed back into the driver’s seat.

“No problem, girly.  Just remember to take care of yourself,” he reached out of the truck window and pat her head again before backing out of the driveway and taking off.  Itara watched the truck disappear down the street for a moment, then returned to the house and closed – and locked – the door.  Finally.  She was home.

She looked out over the living room she hadn’t seen in nearly a week and took in every familiar detail of it.  Everything was exactly the same as it had been when she left, right down to the calendar on the wall, though somehow, it felt less comforting than it should have.  Even the sight of Metal glaring at her from across the room felt familiar, like home, so she knew that wasn’t what was setting her off, but something _did_ feel off.  Some feeling of déjà vu, though it was less entertaining than carrying robots in boxes.  Something prickling in the back of her mind said the familiarity of the situation was wrong and pushed her forward towards the lab door.

She couldn’t remember why, but something told her something was wrong in the lab, that she had to get there immediately.  It was so alarming that she all but ignored Metal when he questioned the look on her face and bolted past the curious bot and down the lab stairs, nearly tripping in the process.  Metal followed close behind, having to catch her when she nearly sent herself rolling down the steps, but she said nothing until she reached the bottom.  She scanned the lab thoroughly once he set her down again, made sure everything was as it should be, made sure no foreign entities were there, before she sighed in confused relief.  She walked the length of the lab, just to double check, then went to RK’s side.  Metal continued to follow her closely, concerned with her sudden flight but waited until she collapsed on the floor next to the charging stations before prodding her about it.

“What was _that_ , exactly?”

She sighed aloud but muttered a small, “I don’t know… I just… I wanted to… make sure everything was okay.  I don’t remember why but I just felt like something was wrong.  Like, even though I was finally home, something in the lab wasn’t going to be right.”  She studied the damage RK had taken but didn’t move from her spot on the floor.  Slowly, she unlocked her tightened shoulders and visibly relaxed against the cold metal contraptions she carefully wedged herself between.  Metal could only watch her strangely, but shrugged and moved to the computer to look over the repairs.

“Well, outside of RK being inactive and damaged, I see nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Yeah… I think… it’s okay.”  Though she hardly sounded sure of that statement, as much as she tried to be.

Silence fell over the lab as Metal returned to the repairs and Itara curled up on the floor between the charging stations to think over the past few days.  On the one hand, she was glad to finally be home and hopefully safe again, away from her class, away from the university, away from _Robotnik_.  She’d wanted nothing more than to come home and curl up next to RK and never move again and she let out a small sigh of contentedness when she realized that was where she was again.  But, at the same time, the light twist in her stomach refused to edge off, even after confirming that everything in the lab was as it should be.  It wasn’t until Metal made a passing comment about RK’s AI being intact that the uncomfortable feeling finally clicked.

Flashing images of her nightmare the day the carrier exploded returned to her: the empty house, the unresponsive robots, Robotnik… and Mephiles.  The accusations he threw at her during her dream, the destruction of their neighborhood and home, Iblis roaring as she fell into the pit of lava.  The memory caused her ears to flatten and her arm to wrap tightly around her legs, despite how much the movement hurt her broken arm.  She couldn’t curl up as tightly as she wanted thanks to the break, but she tried her best and leaned over against the charging station for confirmation that it had, in fact, only been a dream and that everything was okay.  The cold, solid metal against her shoulder kept her vaguely grounded and out of her head as she shook the images from her mind.

But once again, she found herself wishing Kipper was there to hug onto.  Despite knowing what the doll wanted all along, the fact that he’d stuck around for as long as he did, as well as the fact that he was little more than an actual doll to hug onto when RK first brought him home, she found comfort in his presence.  The ability to grab and hold onto him whenever she needed him, having something, _someone_ , to talk to when no one else was around, it was one of the few sources of reassurance she had.  But he hadn’t returned with them.  She didn’t have him when she was with Robotnik and she didn’t have him now.

She hadn’t necessarily expected him to return with them, now that he had what he wanted, but she was hoping, in some small regard, that he would.  She needed normalcy right now and Kipper had long since become a normal part of her life, along with RK and even Metal.  She worried that he would never return.  He had no reason to anymore and she had no way to track him down.

Nor was he the only one she feared losing.  She didn’t need time traveling abilities or even the Gaia Manuscripts to see what was going on anymore.  The monsters, the erratic activation of her powers, the appearance of Light Gaia, and the emergence of Chaos told her everything she needed to know.  Or rather, confirmed her suspicions on the matter.  She didn’t think Chaos was going to be the only one to reawaken and she had no idea how long they had before the others appeared nor how to deal with them once they did.  Was there even anything they _could_ do?

She gave an unconscious glance around the lab for the small black book that rarely left her side still… but stopped short.

The book.  Her journal.  It had been in her backpack.  Her destroyed backpack, the contents of which had been thrown across the university square.  Her journal, along with her phone and handheld, had all been in there.

They were lost.

Gone.

Her eyes widened in horror at the realization, her hand moved up to grab one of her ears, as she stared out at the far wall.  Her journal was gone.  The one gift her father gave her that she had left, the only reliable remains from her past, the only physical connection she had with her father… gone.  She frantically eyed Metal as he worked on RK, about to beg him to take her back to the university to go look for it, but stopped herself before any words left and slowly closed her mouth as she looked away again.

Did… did she want to retrieve it?

It was such a wild notion, the idea that she might not.  Not only was it a precious item to her, but it heavily detailed several timelines no one should ever know about.  If it got into the wrong hands it could be catastrophic.  Namely, if Robotnik got his hands on it.  Of _course_ she had to go get it!  But at the same time, there was some small part of her, rising from the dream conversation with her father, the thoughts she had while in Robotnik’s grasp, _her panic attack at the restaurant_ , saying she no longer wanted it.  That she’d rather it be destroyed and away from her forever.  She didn’t understand these thoughts.  Her face scrunched up into pained confusion as she mentally fought with herself over it.

All the problems that could have been avoided.

_The friends she’d made without it._

All the situations her powers’ erratic behavior got her in.

_Her almost normal life with RK and Kipper._

The damage RK could have avoided taking.

_The fun she’d had with Metal._

The two lives she could have saved.

_The life she’d come to enjoy…_

_Without Mephiles._

_Without Iblis._

Without Solaris.

She curled up again as a small cry of confusion escaped which grabbed Metal’s previously unaware attention.  He looked down at the balled-up hedgehog curiously, unsure what she was doing as she’d been so silent since they came down to the lab.  He almost thought she fell asleep.  He glanced to the screen before he returned his attention back to her to question her about her apparent broken mental state.  Normally he wouldn’t consider it his concern, what the tiny child was up to, but between the state of the world and her powers lately it was better safe than sorry regarding her emotional outbursts.  Especially if the worst of them caused enough explosive damage to take down an entire Egg Carrier.

Though, admittedly, he wasn’t even sure what to do.  He crouched down in front of her and watched her whimper quietly to herself for a moment before reaching out to tap her head and get her attention.  Her eyes darted open and giant, wildly fluctuating green and purple eyes stared up at him, barely seeming to register his presence.  “Hey, what are you muttering about now?”

She didn’t respond, though.  Not beyond more whimpering, at least.  Her breath quickened and, just like before, outside the restaurant, her nails dug into the ear they were gripped onto.  With a heavy sigh, Metal reached over and uncurled her fingers from around her ear, an easy enough task for him, the tiny hedgehog wasn’t particularly strong, after all.  He then debated for a short moment before reaching over to pick her up.  It worked last time, after all, and the sooner he could calm her down, the better.  Once he had her situated in the crook of one arm, he reached up and once again tapped her on the head.

“Don’t ignore me, you little brat.  What are you so distracted by now?”

“ _…journal… my journal… I want… but I don’t… but I can’t…_ ”

Well, it was a response, at least.  Not much in the way of an actual answer, but better than nothing.  He recalled the small black notebook easily enough, though, and realized it had been amongst her scattered belongings back at the university.  He hadn’t picked it up on his way home and he hadn’t seen Itara with it since they picked her up, either, meaning the journal was either still in Spagonia or long since destroyed in the battle that took place.  He knew the information contained within it, bringing Metal to the same conclusion that it was best kept out of the wrong hands.  However, he wondered if it was actually worth looking for.  It was most likely destroyed.  And they were all better off for it, as far as he was concerned.

“ _I can’t… my dad… but I don’t want… I shouldn’t…_ ”

Metal studied the wide-eyed hedgehog for a long moment and eventually decided she was best kept under close watch until she calmed down again.  If her powers started fluctuating again it would put all of them in danger, but so far not even her crystals had appeared yet.  That was always the first sign, as soon as she got upset the ends of her quills crystallized.  Metal was a bit shocked that they hadn’t yet, but that was all the more reason to keep an eye on her.  He managed to calm her down before, he figured he likely could again.  Though, he knew RK would be the most adept at calming the hedgehog girl down so it was probably best to focus back on repairs again.  He would just… keep Itara… near him.  While he worked.  Just in case.

With a sigh of annoyance, he shifted the tiny child so he could keep her in his arm and work at the same time, moving back to the computer chair to make it easier.  She spent a lot of time in his lap lately and it was getting on his nerves.  He would have a bone or two or three dozen to pick with both her and RK once this was all taken care of.  RK was the Mother Hen, not him.  The echidna better turn back on soon so Metal could inform him of this.

It took several hours of balancing acts – running programs, searching for replacement parts, _and_ carrying the tiny child – but finally, as Metal was grumbling about going out to look for parts, Itara came out of her temporary stillness and looked up at the bot.  Confusion spread across her face, which only deepened when Metal noticed her staring at him.  “Don’t you give me that look, you emotional little brat.  I was only making sure you weren’t going to blow _us_ up next.”

Her face reddened as her eyes turned down shamefully, but muttered a small, ‘ _sorry_.’  Metal raised an eyebrow and turned his full attention to her, questioning, “will you actually answer my questions this time or are you going to go back into a catatonic silence if I ask?”

Itara did everything she could to shrink further into herself, but Metal’s grip made it difficult.  She didn’t know exactly what he meant, but she had a decent idea.  With a sigh, she agreed, “I’ll answer.”

“Good.”  He moved back over to the computer chair to set her down, tired of carrying her, and crossed his arms, “So then what was that _this_ time?  All I could get out of you was something about your journal and Solaris.  What’s going on in that head of yours?”  At least, he thought, they were no longer surrounded by people and a sharp-eared scorpion girl this time.

Itara frowned but sighed and explained with an excessive amount of reluctance, “I… I just… realized my journal was… gone.”

“Just?”

She winced at the accusatory tone and continued, “Okay, fine, not just but… I… it’s just… that was… all I had left.  Of the past, of my dad.  Everything has been so useless since the reset, my journal was the only thing I really had left to cling to.  I wanted to go get it immediately but… I also… don’t.”  Her brows furrowed as she continued in a far more frantic tone, “I don’t understand it, at all, but… part of me _hopes_ it’s gone.  Part of me hopes I _never_ see it again.  That I can just… live without… all these problems.  But that doesn’t make sense.  That journal was a gift from my dad, I should cherish it with every fiber of my being.  I should be running back to Spagonia, myself, if I have to, to go find it.  And I want to… but I also… don’t.”

She reached up to grab at her ear again, but a quick claw stopped her before she could, drawing her attention up to the contemplative robot.  “Well, firstly, stop trying to claw your ears.”  He drew his hand back as it glowed lightly from the direct heat but continued, “and secondly, I… I think _RK_ would agree, you should just let the journal go.  Solaris, _Mephiles_ , never did you any good.  You know full well he was only using you that entire time.  It makes sense you’d want to be rid of him and all reminders of him.”

Her face twisted into uncertainty.  She stared at him for several long minutes, trying to understand what he was saying, but looked down after a minute.  She couldn’t argue.  She wanted so badly to argue, but she couldn’t.  Not anymore.  He was right.  But there was another problem with letting it be.  She looked up again, her ears flattened against her head, “But… if it wasn’t destroyed in the fight… I can’t let it get into the wrong hands.  There’s too much information, about the timelines, about me, about _you guys_.”

“Hm, yes, I’m aware of that,” Metal commented and stood up straight to look over the inactive bot, “Well… I’m having a hard time finding suitable replacements for RK here at the base.  Robotnik attacked with some of his heavier defense bots, RK was made from a similar material.  If I could get ahold of some of the scraps from the battle, it’ll speed up this process greatly.”  He returned his gaze to Itara and added, “and perhaps, while I’m there, I can look for the journal.”  Itara stared up at him, unsure how to respond.  All she could think to do was nod silently.  It made sense.  Metal could be there and back in no time and she could find out the fate of her journal while RK could get the replacement parts he needed.  She just… didn’t know which answer she wanted to hear more, when he did go.


	33. Realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itara faces the loss of her journal, while the world faces yet another devastating arrival.

Itara wasn’t sure what she actually wanted to hear when Metal returned from Spagonia for a second time.  He came back with enough parts to repair RK with plenty to spare, should he need further repair in the future…

But he hadn’t returned with the book.

Her journal was truly gone.

According to his report, the university’s attempt to start repairs was stopped short by a number of earthquakes that hit the area.  The previous destruction only worsened and the university became too dangerous to traverse until they were sure the quakes were done.  They had evacuated the remaining professors and students that were still in the area, leaving behind most of the remnants from the fight, including the destroyed bots on the outer edges.  Unfortunately, whatever remained of her backpack and the journal were long gone.  Metal found the burnt remains of her handheld, but that was it.

The earthquakes in Spagonia showed no signs of slowing, either, and the worst of them even managed to reach the outer limits of Soleanna.  Their neighborhood was on the opposite side of the city so it never reached them, but the news was ablaze with talk of light shaking that could be felt on the outer edges in addition to the myriad of other problems Spagonia was facing.  Itara only made the mistake of turning the actual TV on once and immediately turned it back off after it sent her into a minor panic.  The only time the TV was turned on afterwards was if a video game was on, which increased considerably with Itara’s loss of her handheld.

Between the loss of her journal, RK still being offline, and the news about Spagonia, her emotions were hardly any easier to control and the burning in her arms had yet to die down.  Games were hard to play but she tried her best to keep herself distracted, even if she had to sometimes push the buttons with her feet because her hands were too hot.  She never got far on any level, but any small distraction was enough.  She spent a lot more time listening to music than ever before, as well.  She was desperate for any distraction.

Yet, at the same time, deep down in the cluttered mess of her emotions, there was some small semblance of _relief_.  She refused to name it that (the implications were more than she could handle at the moment), but it was a strange, light, floaty feeling that was entirely foreign to her.  Maybe it was because her journal had become little more than a normal journal since the reset and with its loss, she no longer had to constantly check it to see if her powers were working again.  Because it had been removed from her life forcefully, she had no control over the situation.  It felt like the _responsibility_ of keeping a check on everything was gone with it.

The vague concept of just letting things be as they were was both terrifying and strangely appealing.  She had no choice now than to simply let it be.  She had no idea how to process the feeling that came with that idea.  It was freedom and uncertainty, packaged and tightly strung together and she feared what that meant for her.  The first and last time she’d been so uncertain of her future was before she ever met Mephiles, when she wandered Crisis City and struggled just to survive, when she flit from group to group and watched every single one of them die, time and time again, until she was once more left alone to defend herself.  No idea who or what she was.  No guarantee she’d live to the end of the day.

It had been terrifying and disheartening.

But it felt different now.

Now the uncertainty felt strangely hopeful, though she refused to tack that word to it either.

 Even in her own mind. 

She knew there was something still happening out in the world, she knew, even with her journal gone, life wouldn’t return to how it had been the past few months.  The Gods were active, life was only going to get more dangerous.  For all she knew, they could be facing Crisis City again before long.  Maybe not in the same way as before, there was no Iblis to wreak havoc on the world as before, but Chaos and Gaia could do the same if not worse.  If anything, having her powers might at least save her and RK and Metal.  Without them, she was just as much at the mercy of the Gods as everyone else.  She knew more, but it hardly mattered if the world shattered.

But even that thought, for some reason she would never understand, was strangely comforting.  To know she was in the same situation as everyone else, as the robots, as the humans… as her friends.  She didn’t understand why, no matter how she turned it around and studied it in her head to try, but it was relieving.

Relieving.

The word finally forced itself into her thoughts, as much as she tried to fight it back down.  It fought back.  The word sat, large and bolded, in front of her mind’s eye until she accepted it’s meaning.  Until she accepted the feeling.  She fought it, as hard as she could, but it became an impassible wall before long, her mind returned to it, time and time again, until she had no choice but to face it directly.

She was relieved.

Not because she’d lost her powers.

Not because the world was likely ending.

Not really even because she would be in as much danger as everyone else.

She was relieved because she knew, whatever came next, she wasn’t alone.  She had RK and Sparky and, somewhere out there, Kipper.  She had Simon and Tobi and even Sceira.  She’d spent so long keeping her distance from everyone because she believed that was what her father wanted, someone who would get the job done no matter what, someone who would be nothing but helpful towards his cause, and she was determined to be that for him.  Even RK, at first, was nothing more than a tool to keep her alive in a future where Mephiles set her up to die.  But with Solaris no longer responding and her powers no longer being useful, since _she_ became no longer useful, she’d been allowed to live at least somewhat normally.

Yet still she spent most of that time trying to reconnect with him.  Was it all wasted time?  Or was she wasting time _now_ by not trying to fix what happened?  She didn’t know, she didn’t understand, and it only aggravated her further the longer she tried to figure it out.

With a heavy, disgruntled sigh, she looked up through the living room window.  The game she’d been playing sat on a Game Over screen.  She didn’t know how long it’d been there, and the day had long since shifted into night.  Not that she knew what day it was, either.  The house was silent aside from the low hum of the TV, but if she listened hard enough she could hear Metal working down in the lab.  The door was closed, but with the stark silence of the house, the muffled noises from the lab eventually drifted up.

She pushed herself up from the couch slowly as she tried to shake the daze off and trudged towards the lab door to follow the sounds.  She’d spent too long in her head. She wanted a better distraction and video games weren’t helping.  She was hoping Sparky could divert her attention away from her thoughts long enough to get her head back on straight.  There was too much to think about and her head was swirling.  Normally that was when she stirred up trouble with Kipper, but Sparky was the only option now.

As soon as she opened the door the lab, the echo of beeping machines, a welder, and Metal’s unrestrained cursing poured through and Itara briefly debated how much noise she was willing to deal with at the moment.  But she needed out of her head.  With flattened ears, she descended the stairs and looked out over the lab to study the source of all the noise.  Metal was at one of the work stations with the welder and a heap of retrieved scrap metal, muttering to himself as he reshaped it into a replacement leg.  RK was still hooked up inside one of the charging stations, the inner workings of a new leg stood on the table beside him, connectors wrapped in and around the wire framing.

Metal took longer than expected to notice her, but once he did he shot her a sharp warning glare, to which she immediately threw her hands up in defense.  She wasn’t necessarily there to bother him, if anything she would prefer to help however she could.  Once he gleamed her intent from her expression, he returned to his work, though not before motioning towards the computer.  “If you’ve come to help, rather than slow my work with unnecessary words, then check the diagnostics scan on the new leg.  The framing is complete and the outer casing will be as soon as this hunk of junk stops fighting me, but the programming still needs to be checked for compatibility with RK’s systems.”

She nodded and continued over to the computer, sliding up into the chair to do what he said.  Once she had the diagnostics looked over, she turned back to report the result to Metal, getting a nod of approval from the other bot.  It fell quiet afterwards, which only worsened Itara’s discomfort so she attempted to prompt a conversation.

“How… How long until… we can turn him back on?”

Metal eyed her sharply again, he had specifically warned her against bothering him with words, but sighed and responded, “I’ve got one final program running to make sure his AI is working at normal levels, then we should be able to reboot him.  I’ve replaced as many damaged inner workings as possible, including an upgrade to his processors that he’s been desperately needing, dealing with you and all your nonsense, and I’m just making sure the upgrade doesn’t conflict with any current program.  RK is a relatively older model, despite how advanced he is, but because he was inactive for so long there are a lot of upgrades he never got that I did.  I figured it was a good time to implement at least some of them.  Everything from energy consumption, multitasking power, and information storage should all run much smoother now.  I’ve noticed how quickly RK tends to run low on power, or conserves power where it shouldn’t be necessary, and I knew the fix, so I thought it best to offer my services.  I’m so generous.”

Itara couldn’t help the tiny smirk that touched her face.  It was good to know Metal Sonic was still just as full of himself as he’d always been considering everything that happened.  In a way, it was comfortingly familiar.  The upgrades sounded useful, as well.  She knew full well how much power RK consumed with every day functions, though she could never determine whether it was the result of his initial damage or his older systems.  She supposed she had her answer.

“Is there anything else I can help with?”

Metal glanced back at her again briefly before his focus returned to his work in front of him.  He gave it several moments of consideration, a much longer period of time inside the bot’s head than Itara registered outside it, but finally sighed and motioned towards the computer again, “I suppose.  I don’t imagine you have the physical strength to help me rebuild the legs, but you’ve been running repairs on RK for some time now, you should know what you’re looking at with the programs.  Open the motor functions and get to rewiring the new leg.  If you can get it connected now, I can just attach the casing afterwards.  It’ll save time.”

Itara gave a quick nod and turned back around to get right to work.  Anything to speed up having RK to talk to again, she was more than happy to do.  Besides, it kept her mind busy, unlike video games, which more often than not led to zoning out while playing.

 

* * *

 

Far beyond Soleanna, in the vast desert that separated it and Spagonia, the earth around the terrified city continued to shake and shift.  While the city did its best to evacuate everyone they believed to be in danger, a new, much stronger wave of quakes shuddered out below the surface.  They started small, barely enough to knock over the remaining street signs, but one after another, grew larger and longer.  Knocked over signs turned to felled trees to rattled buildings until the streets began to liquify and separate.  The strongest point of the quakes was far out in the desert, where a gaping hole, several miles wide, sunk below the surface.  The hole grew and spread out across the desert to either side, consuming everything around it and releasing a thick purple fog from the gaping maw of the earth.

While the destruction stretched further, reaching not only Spagonia and Soleanna, but every surrounding city and region, humans and mobians alike went running to escape the snaking tremors.  Those that knew of Gaia’s awakening and the cycle that came and went feared the worst and with the loss of the manuscripts were left shattered and confused on how to deal with it.  Hopelessness and fear only rose when the hero hedgehog everyone counted on had appeared so suddenly only to vanish again.  News of Station Square had reached the other side of the ocean before long and the appearance of Chaos only cemented the fear of Gaia’s reawakening.

However, amongst those running away was one tiny, frantic mobian, a magenta foxlike being with green wings, that ran towards the cracks opening across the desert.  Though he’d discovered little about the events since his own reawakening, at the threat of Dark Gaia, he found himself drawn towards the great beast.  Even he didn’t understand why, but the urge to confirm and face the Ancient God moved him forward, though warily.  He had no backup nor any final realization behind his identity, but he at least knew whatever was threatening the world in this part of the land had to be stopped.  His fears, however, _were_ realized when he reached the gaping hole and a powerful aura exploded from it.

Long, glowing purple tendrils reached up from the cavern that stretched out in every direction and the thick, smoldering fog covered the sky around them.  The tendrils continued reaching, searching, as the gaping maw widened to reveal a bubbling lake of magma.  With a final crack and shudder, a hollow screech filled the air and a colossal leviathan rolled itself up out of the magma.  Several burning green eyes opened on its wide head, burning out through the darkening sky, and a row of jagged fangs split into a gruesome display of fury and rage, roaring again to announce its emergence.

Dark Gaia was awake.

Across the desert in the center of Soleanna, as reports continued to roll in about the destruction and misfortune happening across the globe, the royal family sent out news about an announcement in regards to the events.  News stations and word of mouth carried the message all across the city and its outer limits until the day for the announcement came.  Schools tuned in for their students, parents tuned in at home, workflow came to a halt to hear the message, and a large crowd gathered around Soleanna Square to hear it firsthand.  The city came to a near standstill as they awaited word from their princess, on edge from increased attacks in addition to the awakened Gods.

Once the princess appeared and greeted her kingdom, she explained what was happening across the globe.  She informed the crowds and those watching from faraway of what most already knew, that two Ancient Beings had awoken, one in Station Square across the ocean, one much closer in the desert city of Spagonia.  She informed them of the efforts being taken by various local and worldwide powers to deal with them, including the full mobilization of G.U.N. units.

Finally, she addressed the unvoiced concerns about their own Sun God, who had been all too quiet for some time.  Despite Solaris’ silence, even to the royal family, she informed them that they would still hold the Solaris Festival. However, they would not only be holding it early as response to the current predicament, but they would also be adding an extra day of events.  In addition to the lighting of the torch and the usual festivities throughout the day, they would also be holding a city-wide offering to the Sun God to ask his protection from the monsters and the other Gods.  They asked that any who wished to and could participate in the event do.  Any form of offering would be delivered to the statue in the middle of the square the day before the lighting of the torch.

Due to the suddenness of the change, the royal family realized people would need time to prepare for both the festival and the offerings and therefore didn’t want to move the date up too much.  However, the sooner they asked for protection, the better.  The festival would be moved up a month, from the end of June to the second week of May, to give time for people to prepare but not wait too long so as to not put them at any more risk than necessary.  The princess closed her statement with a wish to all her citizens to remain safe and cautious in such trying times and that the royal family would be doing all they could to ensure that safety.

Talk of the announcement exploded for several days across the city afterwards.  Businesses that normally took part in the festival went into a scurry to prepare for the upped date while many that normally didn’t suddenly changed their minds.  Schools set up days to work on offerings and adults worked out what they could possibly offer.  Even the out-of-the-way neighborhood that housed two robots and a time traveler was alight with talk of the announcement and festival.

The only ones unconcerned -and currently oblivious- to the change were the time traveler and her one functional companion robot, as they had completely isolated themselves from the outside world for the time being.  They neither turned on the TV nor answered the door when the strawberry blonde down the street came knocking.  Their focus remained on repairing the second, broken robot or battling with memories of the week.  Their home and lab were well protected from outside dangers in a number of ways and thus they felt no need to divert their attention for any reason.

But finally, after several days of work, arguments, and uncomfortable realizations of the small hedgehog’s, their reason for isolation came to an end.  With a final tweak of programming and the near destruction of Metal Sonic’s sanity, the inactive robot was ready to be rebooted again.  The tiny hedgehog unknowingly held her breath as she ran the manual boot-up while the impatient blue bot behind her watched with narrowed eyes.  He didn’t much want a repeat of what had happened when _he’d_ first been reactivated but was prepared to deal with it, should it happen.

Engines whirred, processors hummed, and fans clicked to life as the two watched the red bot cautiously.  Outwardly, he was mostly repaired, only missing the faux fur in some areas, but they wouldn’t know how his systems would handle the new wiring until they activated him.  It took only seconds, though it felt like eons to the two, before the green light behind the newly repaired optical screen lit up.  Initial scans popped up on the computer’s monitor as the red bot sat up straight, taking several minutes to finalize startup but the still-singular green eye stopped blinking and remained a constant glow.  A clawed hand reached up to flex and test fingers before they curled into a fist and looked out at the basement lab.  AI processed information from optical sensors as full movement registered and before either the blue bot or hedgehog opposite him could respond, RK reached out to wrap Itara up in his arms.  A gasp of air escaped as the breath she’d been holding in was forcibly released.

“That _would_ be your first response,” Metal scoffed as his own tensed shoulders finally released.

There was a moment of silence as both Itara and RK registered the situation, RK being the first to straighten up again, though kept Itara tight against him.  “What happened?”  Before he could get a response, however, his systems caught up with a number of backlogs and errors and momentarily blinded him again as they all displayed at once.  Metal glanced to the computer’s screen to investigate the sudden hitch in the other bot’s movements but was relieved to see RK dismiss a number of them on his own.

“You should run a full scan before we start transferring files, you took a considerable amount of damage and I’ve installed some upgrades you’ve been needing.  I want to make sure your old system can handle everything first,” Metal explained.

“Right.”

As RK continued closing outdated error logs, Itara found her voice again and looked up at the red bot with wide, relieved eyes.  “RK… I’m s-so glad you’re… okay.”

RK looked down at her again to study the bandages and strange looking cast, saying nothing at first.  He was still reviewing memories from before his crash, in addition to the ongoing scan, but found that multitasking was noticeably easier than it had been before.  “What happened to your arm?”  She turned red in the face and looked away so he shook his head, “we’ll talk about it after my scan, I suppose.”  She gave a slight nod and said no more as she wiggled herself further against him.  He supposed there was time for catching up later, overloading his system too soon after reactivation, especially with the damage he knew he took, could easily crash his system again.

There were a number of ‘missed messages’ from the number logged as ‘Lynda’ that he did not have the capacity to deal with just yet and would much rather focus on his systems.  As soon as he got filled in on what happened while he was inactive, he would have to face those messages -or worse, Lynda herself- and he was not looking forward to that.  For now he would just be satisfied that he was active again, that Itara seemed mostly alright, and that three of them were apparently back home at the base again.

Three?

With a quick glance around he realized Kipper was nowhere to be seen but decided to question it later, as well.  The doll could just be up in Itara’s bedroom.  Though he did want to ask him eventually about what happened at Robotnik’s base.  For now, though, scan.


	34. Updating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Disrepair House interact with the neighborhood for the first time since returning home... to discuss the Solaris Festival.

When Metal Sonic told RK to test his new leg to ensure it was working properly, this wasn’t what he meant.  He watched with equal parts ‘I told you so’ amusement and irritation while the large red echidna stood and tapped his foot impatiently, going through the endless sea of text messages and voicemails from the human woman down the street.  RK hadn’t wanted to put it off too long after he got all the updates on the return home since they both knew full-well that she would show up at their door before long, likely with questions (if not demands), and RK needed to be prepared to deal with her.  However, he hadn’t expected there to be quite so many.

They started out simple enough.  A quick ‘just making sure this number works’ that turned into a frantic confirmation of Chaos’ awakening and eventually Itara’s return home with Metal and Ned.  He heard in great detail about the state Itara was in when she returned home via said voicemail, he was grateful to Ned for taking her to a hospital so quickly.  However, what should have been the end of the voicemails only continued into more concerned messages that questioned where _he_ was at, if he was okay, why he was taking so long to return home, if he knew that Itara was home, that she’d tried to wait for him to ‘wake up’ at some point, and eventually devolved into repeated texts of the same ilk.  Apparently, she got tired of talking -RK didn’t think that possible- and decided to test whether texts would work.

He was going to pretend he never saw those.

He couldn’t get out of her knowing he had a phone number to call him by, but at the very least he could pretend his ‘phone’ was basic enough that it didn’t receive texts.

Once he was finally done going through and _deleting_ every message from Lynda, making a note to let her know he at least received them at a later point, he reached up to rub the side of his head.  At least everyone was home safe and in one piece.  Mostly.  He dragged the news about Kipper and his disappearance out of Itara after he finished sharing files with Metal and was overall wholly unsurprised with the doll’s actions.  He knew he hadn’t been sticking around just for the amusement, but the idea that the psychotic little doll was now out there running around with half of Itara’s powers would have been cause for concern if there weren’t much bigger concerns.

The news about Chaos was one thing.

The news about Gaia was another.

The idea that Solaris might follow suit was a universe of trouble all its own.

But there wasn’t much they could do about it in the meantime, either.  For now, it was better to focus on their own recovery and worry about the Gods later, maybe even let someone else deal with it entirely.  If no one managed to wrangle Chaos and Gaia back down, then he would worry, but for now he just wanted to check that his systems were running, that Metal didn’t run off to try and fight Sonic again, and Itara was as okay as she could be.  In addition to Kipper, she also told him about the journal and her mixed feelings about it and that concerned him more than the physical injuries.

At the moment, she was resting in her room, listening to music in an attempt to keep herself distracted, but later he planned to have another talk with her.  However, even his plans to discuss current issues with Metal were brought to a short stop as a knock came from the front door.  Metal disregarded it, as he had been since the last conversation with Lynda, but RK knew better and headed for the door to answer it.  He was hoping to have longer to prepare before his next conversation with the human woman, but no such luck, it seemed.  Best to get it taken care of and done with, he supposed.

However, it wasn’t an eager strawberry blonde behind the door once RK opened it, as he had expected.  Instead, the ever-irritated, and equally shocked, Susan stood on their doorstep, her stance impatient as she looked ready to leave if he hadn’t answered right that second.  The two exchanged glances for a split second before the surprise fell away and Susan crossed her arms, “So you are home, after all.  We were beginning to wonder.”  Metal moved into view behind him, gaining a quick glance from the woman before she refocused on RK, “Lynda said she was having a hard time getting in touch with you.”

“I noticed.  I only saw her messages a few moments ago, so I haven’t had the chance to get back to her just yet.  I was… recovering, from an incident, but I’m getting caught back up now.  What can I do for you, Susan?”  He had planned explanations for Lynda, but he wanted to keep interactions with Susan minimal, especially now.

“Well, I’m glad to see you up and about again,” though neither RK nor Metal were fooled by the vague attempt at pleasantries, “I assume you’ve heard about what’s going on in Station Square and Spagonia?”  RK gave a short nod.  “And the announcement from Soleanna?”

That one, RK hadn’t heard.  He glanced back at Metal, who shrugged in response.  It was the first he had heard about it, either.  They turned back to Susan again and RK questioned, “what announcement?”

Susan studied them suspiciously, but explained, “I’m surprised you didn’t hear.  The Royal Family made a statement the other day about the events and how they plan to respond to it.  In addition to increasing more physical defenses, I guess they’re moving the Solaris Festival up a few weeks and adding an extra day of events.  They’re hoping to ask for the Sun God’s protection from everything that’s going on.”  She didn’t sound overly convinced of the usefulness of such measures and her normal bitterness never left her tone, but she kept at least those comments to herself.  Instead, she added, “Which is the reason I’m here.  There’s a meeting at my house for the neighborhood so we can discuss the situation and the festival.  I suggest attending.”

“When will it be?”

“An hour or so.  I didn’t have a number or anything for you so I wasn’t able to call ahead of time.  You know which one is my house, correct?”

“Yes.  I know.”

“Good.  Then I’ll see you soon.”

She hardly waited for a response before she turned on her heel and strode back down the driveway.  Metal and RK watched her for a minute but shut the door and turned to one another to debate the situation.  “I forgot about the festival,” RK hummed, “I don’t think it’d be wise to skip the neighborhood meeting, but perhaps it’s best to keep Itara away from the festival.”  The two bots glanced down the hall towards the open bedroom door, listening to the unusually loud music that echoed through the house for a moment before RK shook his head, “Even more so than usual, considering her current state.”

“She had to realize Mephiles was only out to use her eventually,” Metal scoffed, though hadn’t looked away from the hall just yet.  “For someone so apparently smart, it sure took her an awful long time.”

“She knew all along.  She was just playing ignorant.  Willful ignorance at its worst, really.”

“Organics.”

There was a moment of silence before RK moved for the lab door, “in any case, I’m going to go look into that announcement and see what all was covered.  Can you let Itara know about the meeting and ask if she’d rather stay here or come with me?”

“I suppose.”  RK nodded and headed downstairs while Metal crossed the living room to look in on the tiny hedgehog.  She was curled up in the middle of her bed, staring off with a music library of some description open on the laptop in front of her.  It was unusual for her to be doing anything other than playing games or messing around on her phone, but he supposed both those items were broken and lost in Spagonia so perhaps this was her best next option.  The list of songs on the open playlist was relatively short and, after looking their names up, he realized most were from video game soundtracks.  One or two were background themes for the simulation game she played with the others, one was a level theme from one the games they had for the console in the living room, but a couple were boss themes for games they didn’t own, so far as he was aware.

The one she was listening to was one of those boss themes.  It was intriguing to listen to for some reason and before Metal realized it, the song ended and he found himself ever so slightly disappointed.  It switched to one of the background tracks for her simulation game and Itara gave no indication that she even registered the sudden, drastic, shift in tone and pace.  Metal thought it important to inform her as perhaps she hadn’t noticed.

“Hey.”  She jerked from the unexpectedly sharp tone and unnoticed appearance and stared over at him, wide-eyed.  Before she could fully register his presence, he commanded, “turn that other one back on,” and with a slightly uncomfortable shift, “and turn it up.”

Itara stared for several seconds, but slowly nodded and reached over to switch the song back, turning the volume up a bit.  Once she had done so, and finally zoned in enough to realize the strangeness of the request, she eyed him again with her usual alertness.  “Wait, what?”

“There’s going to be a neighborhood meeting at that Susan woman’s house in an hour regarding what’s going on lately,” Metal informed her, distinctly ignoring the strange stare he was receiving, “RK wanted to know if you planned to go with him or if you’d rather stay here.”  He debated whether or not he should mention the bit about the Solaris Festival but decided against it.  If she went, she would find out then, and if she didn’t it wouldn’t concern them, anyway.

He watched curiously as a world of uncertainty spread across the little hedgehog’s face, watched as her gaze shifted down and away from him and her brows pulled together, as she fidgeted with the edge of her sleeve, before she finally sighed and dropped her head.  “Y-Yeah… a-alright, I guess I… I’ll go,” she stammered, shifting uncomfortably as she reached over to pause her music, much to Metal’s dismay.  The requested song hadn’t ended but he wasn’t going to say anything about it this time.  Instead, he followed her down to the lab after she asked where RK was at and contemplated whether or not he should go with them.  The idea of having to deal with Susan for even another second, in a house full of humans and their skewed view of current events sounded agonizing, but at the same time, he wanted to keep an eye on RK.  The other bot was still experiencing glitches with the upgrades.

Once RK explained what he’d learned about the announcement and the ongoing state of the other two gods, the three prepared to deal with the meeting down the street.  Both Metal and RK had to change clothes to keep their various robotic parts hidden and Itara had to change out of the pajamas she hadn’t changed out of since they arrived home.  Unfortunately, RK’s usual outfit was beyond repair due to the battle and subsequent flood, leaving him with either the extra camo sweats he kept around for just in case or the outfit from New Year’s.  Damn.  He liked that jacket and he doubted he’d find boots like his old ones so easily again.

With a final check of information, as well as stories regarding what happened after the attack on the museum, RK lifted Itara up onto his shoulders where she quickly got comfortable, and the three headed down the street.  The sun was still a couple hours from setting but was dipping below the tree line beside their house.  Spring was in full swing so the days were getting longer and the snow was long gone, much to Itara’s relief, but there was still a decent bite to the evening air.  RK noticed that the grass in their lawn, specifically, had grown a fair bit compared to the neighbors and wondered if he should take care of that sooner rather than later.  The snow had only recently melted completely yet it seemed the rest of the neighborhood wasted no time in trimming and redecorating their lawns.  What once was a clump of snow in Lynda’s yard had slowly melted and revealed a two-foot garden gnome statue, which she’d already surrounded in much smaller gnomes and fairies.

The walk down to Susan’s was silent amongst the three, each lost in their own thoughts, but once they reached the house in question – a two-story house that sat at the far end of the street on the opposite side, facing down the dead center – a significant amount of chatter and clamor built up past the white paneling.  RK hesitated a short moment to prepare himself to deal with all the questions likely to be flung his way and continued up to the door, pressing in the small red button that served as a doorbell.  The clamor inside hushed slightly at the sound, though it was brief, as the lock clicked and Lawrence, Susan’s husband, swung the door open.

“Ah, there you are.  Come on in.”  He wasn’t nearly as off-putting and scathing as Susan, but he wasn’t a friendly face, either.  He hurried them in and before RK had even enough time to scan the packed room, the ever-prescient strawberry blonde shot over from the opposite side to greet them.

“RK!  You’re back!” Lynda half-screeched, concern and relief written all over her unusually make-up light face.  She reached for his hand, nearly stabbing herself on the elongated claws had RK not shifted them before she could, and continued, “I’ve been so worried!  Sparky said you came back and were just resting but I hadn’t heard from you for so long I just didn’t know what to think!  Thank Heavens you’re all okay!”  She shifted her gaze up to Itara at this, honed in on the wrapped arm and frowned, “How are you holding up, Itara?  What happened?  Are you alright?  Simon has been awful worried about you.  He’s just in the other room with Camilla, you should go see them.”

Itara’s face dropped at the mention of Camilla, but kept her mental comment to herself as she glanced away from the human woman.  Instead, she forced out a wary, “I’m… fine.  I’ll be fine.  But sure, I’ll… go say ‘hi’ to Simon… I guess.”

“That’s for the best, the adults have a lot to discuss,” Susan interjected, impatient as always.

Itara shot her a quick scowl while RK pulled her up off his shoulders and set her down.  “Be careful of your arms, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will,” she sighed and gave another small wave to Lynda as she followed the directions towards the other ‘kids’.  As much as she wanted to know what all they were talking about, she did at least want to see Simon.  She had to tell him her handheld was lost, after all.  Once she was down the hall and headed for what was apparently Camilla’s bedroom, taking in the extravagant details and decorations of the two-story house along the way, her ears perked once she heard the ‘adults’ begin whatever meeting they were having.  She could still hear them just fine, heard Lynda pull RK and Metal over to the rest of the group and offer them all manner of drinks, then Susan berate her for derailing the conversation.  Then they finally got into talk about what had happened.

Itara stopped listening at that point, both because she knew better than all of them what was actually going on and also because she reached her destination.  Camilla’s room, even at a glance, was easily twice the size of her own bedroom and much, much nicer.  Not that Itara cared, she liked smaller spaces, it was easier to reach things if they were closer together.  But the excessive extravagance, from the clean white walls, to the lace bed covers and multiple pillows, to the silver accented furniture reminded Itara of another room she tried to avoid thinking about and froze her at the door for several minutes.

Camilla and Simon were sat in the center of the room, on a large, round rug, homework packets tossed carelessly beside them, deep in conversation about the same topic as the adults two rooms away.  Though their conversation was far less serious in nature as Simon was rambling about fighting the beasts that were still running rampant while Camilla vaguely humored him.  It wasn’t until Simon motioned widely with his arms and his eyes happened to follow one of them that he realized they had company.

“Itara!  You’re back!”

The exclamation drew all three of them out of their thoughts and put their attention on Itara, who shuffled uncomfortable under the gaze.  Camilla said nothing and made no movement towards her, but Simon bolted to his feet and ran over, moving to grab onto her much the same way Lynda had done to RK until he noticed her arm in the bright blue sling and stopped short.  “Oh, jeez, are you okay?”

Itara shook her head, less as a response and more to focus in, as she explained, “I’m fine.  I just… ran into trouble.”

“I’m so glad you’re back, though!  When I heard you got separated from everyone on the trip, I was afraid something real bad happened and then Sceira came over and looked all upset, asking where you lived.  What even happened?  I heard those monsters AND Robotnik attacked the university!”  As he battered her with concerns and questions, he pushed her over to the rug Camilla was still sitting on, which created an awkward moment where the two made eye contact before looking away again.  “Tell us what happened!”

Once Simon took a moment to breathe again, Itara sighed and looked briefly between them.  She and RK had discussed what they would tell people who asked about what happened, but for some reason she almost felt like telling Simon the truth.  In this one instance, she was grateful for Camilla’s presence, because she knew she would never reveal so much to _her_.  But the thought that Sceira had actually been upset about her going missing, and even went to the trouble of bring her stuff from the hotel back for her, continued to catch her off-guard.  RK had explained how her suitcase got back home, but she still didn’t want to believe Sceira of all people could be worried about her.

“I…”  She shook her head again and explained, “I just… when the monsters attacked, Sparky and I ended up separated from everyone and while Sparky tried to fight them off, I tried to find somewhere to hide.  It was chaos-,” well, no, it was Robotnik, “I got caught up with some of Robotnik’s badniks and ended up further out from everyone.”

“Did you actually see Robotnik?”

A shudder ran down the hedgehog’s back as she thought about the response.  She did far more than _see_ him.  “I… yeah.”

“ _Whoa_.  Is he really that scary?  Like, I’ve heard a lot of stories about the guy, but I heard you mobians really have a history with him.  Sonic fights him all the time, right?  Is he the only one of you guys who do?  Is he really that special?”

Once again, Simon bombarded her questions she only half wanted to answer but she sighed with slight amusement and annoyance.  They really had no idea, did they?  But she wasn’t going to explain the entire history of Sonic and Robotnik’s rivalry so, instead, she changed the subject and asked about the festival.  “You guys heard about the festival changes, right?”

“Oh, yeah.  That’s pretty crazy, I don’t remember them ever changing the date before and we’ve gone to the festival every year I can remember,” Simon responded as he reached up to rub his head, “hey, I just realized.”  He looked at Itara again, “you’re new to our school, but are you new to the area?  Have you ever been to the Solaris Festival?  Do you know about Solaris?”

Itara almost scoffed.  She wanted to be bitter in her response, but knew it would be suspicious and took a deep breath to calm herself before responding, “No, I’m not new to the area.  I’m… _very well acquainted_ with Solaris.”

“Oh, that’s right, you like history stuff, right?  Did you do a lot of research on him or something.”

“…Something like that.”  She shifted uncomfortably as she suddenly regretted bringing the festival up.  She wanted more information on the subject, but she should have realized it would bring conversation to Solaris.  She didn’t want to think about him right now.  Luckily, Simon was a well of continuous topics today and shifted once more.

“But the fact that the festival is gonna be a day longer is kind of cool.  Camilla and I were just talking about what we’re going to do for it.  Our families usually meet up for it and we all watch the lighting of the torch together.  My mom and I play a lot of the games they have set up, too.  Camilla’s family usually sticks to the ritual stuff, though.”

Games?

Itara’s interest piqued again as she looked between them curiously.  She’d never paid attention to the festival outside the lighting of the torch, since it was the part distinctly designed for Solaris.  “What kind of… games?”

“Oh man, all kinds!  I thought you weren’t new?” Simon questioned, an eyebrow rose.

“I’m not, I just… never paid attention to the rest.  I guess I… also stuck to the… _ritual_ stuff.”  Camilla eyed her curiously, only for a brief moment, before she looked away again.  She hadn’t said a word since Itara appeared and was going through a great bit of trouble to do so.  On the one hand, Itara was curious as to why, but on the other hand she still didn’t much like Camilla so the longer she remained silent, the better.

Simon went quiet, as well, when she answered.  She worried, for a moment, that she may have said something suspicious and he had caught onto her lie.  There was still a lot of everyday situations she struggled with and while they had lessened a great deal since hanging around Simon, they still existed here and there.  However, her brief moment of concern came to a close as Simon got excited again, smiled widely over at her and clapped his hands together.

“You should come with us this year!”

“What?”

“We should all meet up at the festival, the four of us!  Sceira goes, too, we sometimes meet at the snack stalls.  The four of us should meet up and Sceira and I can show you and Camilla the more fun side of the festival!  We can eat snacks and play games and watch the performances or… listen to them, in Sceira’s case.  There’s this big dance before the main performance where you can join the boat dancers and they’ll teach you parts of the dance, it’s fun!  I heard there’s gonna be even more stands than any year before because of what’s happening, a lot of places that don’t normally take part are planning to, so there’ll be even _more_ to do!”

Itara and Camilla exchanged brief glances at his suggestion before they returned their attention to him again, neither looking all that sure of it.  In Camilla’s case, she wasn’t sure whether her parents would allow her to break away long enough to go do something fun with her friends.  They were always strict about the festival events, with a full schedule including meet-ups with other members of the community.  Itara, however, wasn’t sure she wanted to go to the festival in the first place.  For the first time in her life she wanted to keep her distance from her father and going to an event specifically planned for him, calling for his help and his protection, sounded like a panic waiting to happen.

Then again, a night out with her… _friends_ … sounded fun.

As much as she didn’t like Camilla, and Sceira was on thin ice, she did at least like Simon.  Plus, maybe Tobi and the others from the game night would be there, too.  Speaking of which.  She turned a sharp eye on Simon, who crippled under her sudden gaze with a quiet _what_ , and sat up straighter to accuse him, “You told Tobi about my gaming.”

Simon turned red in the face and gave a short, guilty laugh as he reached up to rub his head.  “Whoops, you found out.”  Her glare sharpened but Simon only laughed again as he straightened up, himself, “Ah, c’mon Itara, it’s not like it wasn’t obvious, anyway.  How’d you find out, though?”

“I… he….”  She glanced towards Camilla, one of the distinct names on the exceptionally short list of people that could not learn of their game night, even though it was long since over and a parent had broken it up that night, anyway.  But she shook her head and explained, “I’ll tell you later.  The point is, you _traitor_.”

“Sorry, sorry.  But hey, more people to play with, right?”

She frowned as she remembered one of the reasons she agreed to come to the meeting, “…About that...”  She wondered if RK would get her a new handheld.  Not to mention all the games they had to rebuy now.  She didn’t think they could get them all at once, even if they got used versions, but she at least wanted to get that first simulation game again.  Not to mention she needed a new phone, too.  What she didn’t know, however, was how pointless it would _all_ be soon.


	35. The Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited Festival of the Sun, the day that started it all, has finally arrived...

“Are you sure?”

Itara shifted uncomfortably under RK’s gaze, having to look down and away after a moment, “N-No… not… I mean… it’s just…”  Her hand reached down to wring the edge of her shirt as she struggled for an explanation, though she knew she didn’t have much of one yet.

After the meeting at Susan’s Itara spent several of the following days debating how to tell Simon she couldn’t go to the festival with them.  Up until recently, the idea of skipping out on the Solaris Festival was beyond her comprehension. Even if she knew her father wouldn’t hear any of it, she was happy to do anything to let him know she was still there and waiting to help him in any way she could.  But lately… lately, it was different.  She wanted nothing more than to hide in the basement lab and forget the entire event this time around.  She didn’t even want to see the shrine.  Yet every time she came up with a believable excuse, she mentally doubled back on it and couldn’t pinpoint why.

Her inclination to go had nothing to do with seeing the shrine or the ritual or even her father.  If anything, with the other Gods awake, she wanted to avoid it all the more.  For the first time in her long, long life, she wanted to avoid her father and everything to do with him.  Yet she still couldn’t talk herself out of going and, while it took several hours of lying awake at night, she finally figured out why.  She wanted to be with her friends.

She wanted to avoid her father, but she wanted to go and have fun with the only friends she’d ever made in several hundred years of existence more.  She wanted to play silly kid games and watch everyone dance -she wouldn’t make _that_ much of a fool of herself by joining in- and eat all the snacks Simon described to her while trying to convince her to go.  She wanted to see Camilla’s face when she got annihilated in some pop cork shooting game, she wanted to challenge Simon to every arcade game they could find, she wanted to see if Tobi and the gaming group showed up at any point.  She even wanted to see Sceira.  She hadn’t gone back to school since returning home so she’d only seen Simon and Camilla at that meeting and Sceira hadn’t come back to their neighborhood since dropping her suitcase off.

She didn’t understand it, as much as she tried, but she thought maybe if she ignored the point of the festival maybe she could have fun with her friends.  Even if it was just one night.  She just wanted one night.  But she didn’t know how to convey all this to RK, either.  There were too many inexplicable emotions and concepts to properly explain herself to the bot.  All she could do was shrug and look hopelessly up at him, a pained frown spread across her face.  She was hoping he wouldn’t ask her reasons.  That he would just assume she wanted to go for the normal reasons and not argue the point.

As she stared up at him, unsure what his reaction would be and hoped he would somehow end her raging mental debate, the door to the lab swung open and revealed a perplexed Metal Sonic.  He had a long stretch of yellowed parchment in his hand and his eyes were glowing brightly as he looked up at the two.  He stopped to study the eyes on him as an eyebrow lifted, “what?”

RK shook his head and turned fully towards the other bot, “Itara wants to go to the festival.”

Metal looked back and forth between them, his expression straightened as he shrugged.  “Of course she does, what else did you expect?  In either case, there’s something more important that requires our attention,” he held the parchment up and continued, “I just finished transcribing these and-.”

“Are those the Gaia Manuscripts?!”  Itara’s previous mental anguish evaporated as her face twisted into baffled fury.  “YOU got them?!  You had them this entire time?!”

Metal’s scowl at being interrupted shifted into snide amusement at the furious hedgehog, “Yes, I did.  The best way to keep them away from _you_ was to keep them with _me_ , after all.”  RK sighed but Metal’s amusement fell away quickly enough, “but, as I was saying, we may have a slight problem.  You said Chaos likely has the emeralds, correct?”  Itara nodded.  “And he absorbed them completely?  You’re certain?”

“Not a hundred percent, but between what Zero told me about the missing emeralds and Chaos’ rampage through Station Square it’s a safe assumption.  Especially considering no one’s heard mention of any Super Sonic since all of this started.  If the emeralds were accessible, you know he’d have them by now.  Why?”

“Because according to the manuscripts, when Dark Gaia awakens, he splits the world to pieces and only Light Gaia, with the power of the emeralds and the Gaia Temples, can fix it again.  I only have what was on display at the museum, though.  You knew of Gaia from before, didn’t you?  Do you know anything about these temples, little time traveler?”

Itara frowned and crossed her arms, turning away to think on it.  She knew about Dark and Light Gaia’s back and forth, she knew they awoke at specific times to battle it out and went back to sleep afterwards, but she never had need to look into it further.  Eventually she shook her again and looked back at them again, “I don’t.  I didn’t know anything about the temples or that the Chaos Emeralds were used in their battle.”

RK reached over to grab the manuscript and study it, “could you copy the translations over to me?  We can look further into it… _if_ it becomes necessary.  I’d like to stay as far from having to fight Gods again as possible.”  There was a moment of awkward silence between the three before RK handed the manuscript back to Metal, “in the meantime, my concern is the festival.  I don’t know how great of an idea it’ll be to go.  _Especially_ with recent events.  I feel like staying as far from any potential Solaris issues should be the highest priority.”

“RK, I…” Itara sighed heavily.  She didn’t want to admit the real reason she wanted to go, but after a moment realized it was what he had been trying to convince her of for some time now.  If she wanted to go, the real explanation was the best way to persuade him.  “I… don’t… want to go for… Solaris.”  She glanced up at the raised eyebrows from the corner of her eye, vague hints of surprise touched RK’s face while curiosity covered Metal’s.  “I…,” she looked away again, her words scrambled over themselves as her hand busied with the edge of her clothing, “I want to… g-go with… my… my f- _friends_.”

She didn’t have the willpower to look up again and let silence fill the room, unsure how they would respond, whether Metal would mock her or RK would question her further.  She was somewhat glad Kipper wasn’t around because she knew for sure she’d never hear the end of it from him but the elongated silence from the other two was uncomfortable enough on its own.  When she did finally get some form of response, it came in the form of a hand on her head.  She glanced up at it, following the arm to the massive red robot that was crouched down beside her, the trace of a smile touched his features.

“Alright,” RK nodded, “I think we can do that, then.”  Metal remained silently watching, studying, behind him, the curiosity never quite left his face but his normal scoff returned before long.

“You’re both too attached to the mortals now.”

RK shot him a quick scowl but Itara turned red in the face.  “I…!”  She couldn’t argue.  He was right.  She’d grown attached.  Just like she’d grown attached to RK and Kipper and now Metal.  But more than anything, she was excited.  She was excited for the festival, for the games, the music, and the treats.  She was excited to have a fun night out with her friends.  Her arm was still healing from the break, but her powers had finally calmed down again.  She didn’t have to worry about lighting anything on fire and hopefully it remained that way.  She just wanted to be a normal hedgehog, for one night.

 

The day of the festival couldn’t come fast enough.

Itara’s apprehension about going to an event centered around her father hadn’t ebbed much at first, but the closer to the festival it got, and the more Simon brought it up whenever he dropped by, the more excited Itara inevitably got.  She was only vaguely interested in the concept at first, but by the night before she had a hard time getting to sleep due to sheer anticipation.  Metal and RK continued to discuss what they’d learned regarding Gaia and the Chaos Emeralds, and Itara filled in any details regarding the Gods and lost gems that they didn’t have, but she had a hard time focusing on it for long.  She’d even asked RK to order her a new dress online for the festival.  None of them necessarily wanted to go into town for a shopping trip, but online ordering was an option.  Itara was just grateful the little blue and purple dress fit right because they certainly didn’t have time to send it back and get another size.

The first day of the festival was entirely dedicated to the citywide offerings.  It was an all-day event open to everyone willing to stop by, even Simon, Lynda, and Susan’s family brought something to the city for offering, but Itara avoided it.  She didn’t want to give her dad anything more than she already had.  If anything, he could have her lost journal back, but other than that she would ignore the first day of the festival.  But once the second day, the day with events and gatherings and dances and stalls and stands for them to go around and have fun at came, Itara could barely contain her enthusiasm.

She was up early that morning, showered and dressed and attempting to wrangle her quills into some kind of style, when RK came up from the lab to get her breakfast started.  He watched her strangely while she ate, but only shook his head and returned to the lab to talk with Metal about the day once she was cleaned up.  The other bot was barely pulling himself out of the charging station when RK returned and glanced over at him before turning to the computer to check on the program they’d left running overnight.

“Still nothing?” RK questioned as he rejoined Metal’s side at the computer desk.

Metal shook his head, “Nothing.  No sign of the emeralds, the temples, or Robotnik.  I don’t, for a second, believe that madman actually died in that flood, I _know_ he’s hiding out.  Possibly with that other bot.  But neither one has made an appearance since.  On the other hand, though, both Chaos and Gaia have shifted movements.  Chaos headed for the ocean and Gaia has retreated to that first hole he created.  People think they might finally be returning to sleep but… I don’t think that’s the case.”  His brows pulled together as one claw tapped impatiently on the opposite arm, his eyes pierced through the screen he was staring down.

“What do you think it is, then?”

“I can’t say for sure… maybe waiting, maybe resting, but there’s no way they’re just going back to sleep with no outward force.  Spagonia is one giant crater now, Station Square is entirely underwater, and even the outer edges of Soleanna have crumbled into one of Gaia’s rifts.  They’re not finished.  I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re not finished.”

Silence fell around the lab as the bots studied the news articles spread across the screen, the list of notes about the Ancient Gods Itara had given them, and the empty tracking program they’d built to keep an eye out for Robotnik’s movements.  After several minutes, the silence broke with the slam of the door at the top of the stairs and a tiny, ecstatic call for RK, who sighed and turned his attention to the stairwell.  Itara half-ran down the steps, though slowed her pace when she nearly tripped, and called over to them again.

“RK!  Sparky!  Are you ready to go yet?!”

“Just about, Itara,” RK responded.  He shot Metal a quick glance before crossing the room to meet Itara halfway, “Do you have everything you need?”  She nodded her head curtly and RK looked back at the other bot, “Metal, did you decide whether or not you’re coming with us?”

“Tch… of course I am,” Metal scoffed as he turned away from the computer, “I still think this is an awful idea and apparently I must go with you to prove it.”  RK couldn’t help but smirk but turned back towards the stairs and the three of them returned to the house to prepare to leave.  RK got himself a new pair of boots and a new jacket when he ordered Itara’s dress she wanted, and even got a surprise jacket for Metal so they would all be fully prepared and comfortable for their excursion back into the city.  It would be their first trip out of the neighborhood since the disaster school trip and RK wanted to ensure that they were ready.

For once it was Itara who grew antsy with their slowness and was at the door waiting and nearly prancing by the time the other two had changed and joined her.  “Finally!  Let’s go get Simon and Lynda and _go_!”  They planned to pick the two up on their way out and the five of them would all take the train into the city.  Camilla and her parents would meet up with them later as Susan was part of the preparation committee, because of course she was.  Once Itara had claimed her rightful spot on RK’s shoulders, and RK grabbed the just-in-case jacket he wanted her to bring since they’d likely be there after dark, the three proceeded out the door and down to Lynda’s.

Simon was already outside, sitting on his porch, playing his handheld, but he closed it quickly once he heard them approach and waved.  “Hey Itara!  Lemme go get mom-!”

“I’m here,” Lynda walked out and smiled at the group before motioning to Simon to put his game away.  “Go put that up so we can leave.  Be quick about it.”

“Right, mom.”

Once Simon disappeared into the house, Lynda turned back to the other three and smiled warily, “we go to the festival every year, it’s one of the biggest events Simon looks forward to, but with everything that’s been happening lately…”  She trailed off and RK nodded, though she perked up quickly as usual and all but grinned at them, “I’m glad to have such a strong mobian around, though.  I’ve seen you fight now, after all.”

Metal and Itara both cast RK a questioning gaze (Metal’s much more accusatory than Itara’s), but RK had no time to respond before Simon bolted out again.  “Alright!  Let’s go!  I bet Sceira’s already there.  She always gets there earlier than me somehow.”  Itara remained silent at the mention of Sceira, still battling her feelings regarding the scorpion.  She hated Sceira for so long and she wanted to continue to hate her because it was easier, but for some reason she couldn’t and it made her uncomfortable.  At least Camilla was still easy to hate.

The train ride to the city was no less antsy than the rest of the morning.  Beyond Simon and Itara bouncing about in anticipation, there were a number of other children doing much the same on the train and the closer to the city they got, the more packed it got.  Metal Sonic was noticeably the most uncomfortable the more people piled into the train as he travelled via train the least, and RK struggled to keep him calm.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the Soleanna Station stop finally came up and the train emptied in droves of festival goers.  Humans, mobians, children, teens, parents, grandparents, couples, friend groups.  To those who lived outside the city, it seemed almost as if the entirety of the population was humming and buzzing about.  RK had never been more grateful that Itara preferred to stay on his shoulders as he was certain he would have lost her for an eternity in that station.  He struggled to keep track of Lynda enough as it was.

Another sigh of relief escaped RK, Metal, and Lynda once they found the exits and escaped to fresh air again, though Metal only tensed again when he realized how consistent this problem would be throughout the day.  He didn’t do well in crowds, he preferred having plenty of room to move and run.  Not even RK was immune to the stress of city crowds, but he visited Soleanna far more often and managed to keep most of his strain under control.  As soon as he noticed Metal tense up and eye the crowds sharply, his claws curled and starting to crackle, he reached over and gave the other bot a light pat on the small of his back to grab his attention.  Metal’s gaze shot over at him, his eyes brightly lit, but forced himself to calm after a short conversation over their comm units.

“C’mon, the crowds should thin out a bit once we get further from the station.”

“And if they don’t?” Metal hissed, though followed after the red bot as he led the group towards the sound of music.  They had both downloaded maps of the festival layout so they would know where everything was ahead of time, including the fastest exits from every angle should they need it.

“They will.  This is just an everyone arriving at once blockage, once people start looking around the stalls and going about their business, it’ll thin out,” RK assured him.  He led them through crowds and down the busy streets, keeping a sharp eye on Metal as he did so, but proved his point as the people became less and less clustered.  As soon as the festival stalls came into sight, lined all up and down what was once main street, they had room to spread out again and Metal wasted no time getting a full arm’s length from everyone.  Even Lynda breathed a sigh of relief when she had room to move and Simon wrenched his mom’s hand off his, giving it a good couple shakes to get the feeling back in it.

The five stood there for several minutes, taking a moment to breathe as well as take in the sights of the festival.  To Itara, who had only seen it in passing in a time long forgotten and had never stopped to enjoy any of it, the endless lines of booths and stalls all with excited workers calling out to passersby to ‘have a crack at this’ or ‘don’t miss out on the best that’ filled her with exhilaration and eagerness to join the crowds for once.  To Simon, who came every year and enjoyed it every time, the increased stalls and events only made him antsier to meet up with more friends and get at everything he could possibly fit into one day.

Lynda, meanwhile, was already scoping out the alcohol stands and preparing to annihilate several glasses before the night ended.  For the two robots, however, neither of which had ever seen anything quite like the grandiose display before them, only experienced wary hesitation.  Metal already dreaded the crowds and people he would be forced to wade through without having the option to mutilate any of them, lest whatever cover they had remaining be blown.  RK, on the other hand, could only see every mention of Solaris and mentally cringe.  He hadn’t planned to let Itara get near the festival originally, considering her past habits and current mental state.  He could only hope she remained distracted by her friends and kept her mind off the Sun God somehow.  He wasn’t sure where she stood with him anymore and it concerned him.

None of them were given long to debate, however, as Itara and Simon called them all to attention and the five were sent into the sea of festival goers to first find Sceira, then continue onwards to battle.  They had stalls and games and snacks to conquer and only so much time to do it all in.  RK and Lynda exchanged glances at the eager children’s command, but shrugged and moved on.  Metal, meanwhile, only rolled his eyes in annoyance but followed, nonetheless.

“So Sceira and I usually meet up near the lemonade stall but… there’s more than one this year,” Simon informed them as they slowly trudged down the packed road.

“Well what’s the name of the one you normally meet at?” Itara questioned.

“Uh…”

“It’s the one run by Bear’s Diner,” Lynda offered in Simon’s place, “the owner is quite a nice man.  He always gets rather excited about the Solaris Festival, I’m sure he won’t be hard to spot.”

RK nodded, glad he’d mapped out where each stand would be ahead of time and once again led the way to their destination.  The lemonade stand, according to the map he and Metal had, was placed dead center on the left side and luckily the map was correct.  They found it quickly enough and Itara spotted the grey pseudo-scorpion easily enough from her higher vantage and pointed her out to the group.  She and her parents were standing near the lemonade stall, drinks in hand, chatting as quietly as they could without being drowned out by the enclosing crowds.

Once Simon caught sight of them, he rushed over, calling out to Sceira, and brought the three’s attention to the approaching group.  Sceira and her mother, another grey-eyed pseudo-scorpion like her daughter, stared out in their general direction, Sceira gave a small wave as Simon approached while her mother offered a quiet, uncertain smile.  Her father, a slightly larger jet-black scorpion with deep black eyes and one long, ponytailed pincer, looked their way and studied the group carefully but nodded to Lynda.  He said nothing and continued to study the other two mobians sharply while Sceira took up the mantle of conversation that her parents didn’t offer.

“Hi Simon, did you just arrive?”

“Yep!  Just got off the train!  Itara’s here, too!  I managed to convince her to come, after all,” Simon grinned up at Itara as she shifted on RK’s shoulders.  Shock touched the scorpion’s face before lowering to solemn concern.  “Oh, that’s right, you haven’t seen her since she came back.  It’s alright, she’s fine.”

RK had been avoiding eye contact with the piercing gaze of the mobian parent, concerned that he might actually recognize either him or Metal, but shifted his attention to Itara at the conversation.  She hadn’t said anything yet but he reached up to pull her off his shoulders and nudge her towards the other girl so they could have whatever conversation needed to happen.  Not even he was sure of Itara’s feelings towards Sceira lately, but based on what Metal filled him in on regarding the trip, he knew they needed to talk.

Itara stiffened when she was set back down, both because she didn’t want to move her still healing arm and also because she secretly feared what Sceira would say.  The scorpion girl shifted uncomfortably but neither of them had a moment’s respite as Simon explained, “you two should just hug it out or something.  Though, Sceira you should be careful of Itara’s arm, it’s broken.”  Both Sceira and Itara winced at the mention of her arm, a curious sight to the watching Simon, but finally Sceira cut the silence between the two.

“Itara, I’m… I’m sorry… about what happened.  At the university.  I froze up.  If it hadn’t been for you I….”

Itara’s face scrunched, uncomfortable with the apology but sighed and looked away, “It’s… it’s whatever.  D-Don’t… don’t mention it, I…”  She wanted to tell her she didn’t even know why she did it in the first place, that she originally intended to leave her there to die.  But somehow it didn’t feel like the right thing to say.  She wanted to have fun tonight and starting the day off by telling Sceira she wished she’d died that day for the sake of the manuscripts felt like the wrong way to do it.  But she didn’t know what else to say, either.  Eventually she sighed loudly and dramatically, turned back to face Sceira, and stated as firmly as her shaking voice could possibly manage, “L-Let’s just… forget about the stupid trip and… play some dumb games.  Simon promised games and snacks.”

The group remained in shocked silence for several minutes to process her response, especially RK, Metal, and Sceira.  Even Itara was mildly taken aback by her own answer, but a smile slowly spread across the scorpion’s face as she nodded.  “Yeah… yeah, alright.  Let’s play some games.  I’m glad you’re back, Itara.  We’ve been worried about you.”

“Alright!” Simon exclaimed with an excited bounce, “let’s get this game train rolling!  We’ve probably got a couple hours at least until Camilla is gonna be free so let’s keep the real fun stuff for after that but we should hit up a snack stand!”  The tense air between Itara and Sceira defused rapidly as they joined Simon in his plans on which stalls to hit first and which to leave for when Camilla was with them.  Of course, as much as Itara didn’t mind Sceira’s company for now, she still didn’t want to be near Susan and Camilla.  They still irked her and Susan still felt suspicious of them, but she supposed she could deal with it for the day.  Not even Camilla was going to ruin her fun today.


End file.
